the Creed proportionable to the Capacity of those whom he instructed to put them into a state fit to receive Baptism and to be plung'd in the Mystical Waters of this Sacrament of our Regeneration But to ascend higher than St. Cyril Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 10. l. 6. c. 6. Can. 3. c. 26. Can. 15 29. from the very first beginning of Christian Religion there were publick Schools at Alexandria and places appointed for this Exercise and where the rudiments of Faith was taught or as the Apostle speaks The rudiments of the first beginning of the word of God In the 2d Century Pantenus an Eminent Philopher kept this School and then exercis'd the Office of Catechist Clement of Alexandria succeeded him and he had Origen for his Successor aged but 18. years Origen left the Conduct of this School to Heraclas and Heraclas to Dennis and these two last were successively Bishops of Alexandria The Authors of our Discipline had therefore good reason to exhort the Churches to have frequent Catechising which is of great benefit and singular edification XIV Ministers with their Families shall actually reside in their Churches or Parishes under pain of being depos'd from their Office CONFORMITY In the first Ages Pastors were so full of zeal for the Glory of God and so industrious for the Edification of their Flock that 't was superfluous to exhort them to Residence seeing they had no other thoughts but to do it in the places assigned to their care and where the Families lived which were committed to their conduct neither do we find in those times any Canons which enjoyn them to this Residence because they themselves of their own free will were inclin'd to do it and that 't was not heard of that a Pastor did not dwell in the midst of the Flock to whom he owed his care and presence De Lapsis St. Cyprian complained of certain Bishops which incumbring themselves with secular affairs abandoned their Churches and the care of that holy administration whereof they were to render an account to our Saviour And in his 56 Epistle to those of Thibari he sheweth that in the present conjuncture he could not safely leave his Church and the People God had committed to his Charge St. Ambrose sufficiently testifies that he was really persuaded of the necessity of Residence when he wrote to the Emperor Theodosius that if the dread he had of the Tyrant Eugenius had oblig'd him to quit Millan for a little time yet he returned thither as soon as the storm was past over Lib. 7. Ep. 58. To. 5. p. 322. Pâ—r. 1632. I hastned saith he to return as soon as ever I heard that him whose presence I thought I was bound to shun was gone for I forsook not the Church of Millan which the Providence of God committed to my care but I desir'd not to see him that made himself guilty of Sacriledg He speaks of Eugenius who usurped the Empire after having cruelly put to death the Emperor Valentinian the younger This holy Doctor elsewhere represents the damages occasioned to the Church by the absence of its Pastor especially when he observes the People omit frequenting the Holy Exercises and not only the People but also the Clergy themselves become more remiss in things of Piety and Religion St. Austin declares plainly in the 138 and 227 Epistles that he never forsook his Church but upon indispensible necessity In a request presented by some Friers to the Emperors Theodosius the Younger and Valentinian the Third against Nestorius they accuse him amongst other things That for the executing his outrages he employed foreign Clerks which he made come from other parts that is to say other Clergy besides his own Tom. 2. Conc. pag. 222. Altho according to the Ecclesiastical Canons say they they are not permitted to live in another Diocess or in another Church but only in those places and Cities where they received Ordination by the Imposition of hands there to reside peaceably It is not easie to affirm with certainty if the Canons whereof they speak were reduced into writing or rather if they were not customs and uses setled in the Churches by long practice for this term of Canon or Rule has sometimes this signification in the writings of the Ancients and what induces me to think so is That till the Fifth Century when this request was presented it was not very needful to make Canons to oblige Pastors to reside in their Churches if it be not that one may apply to this Residence the Canons which prohibit the Translation of Bishops from one place to another whereof we shall treat hereafter I know very well that the Council of Sardis had in the year 347 made some Decrees which in some fort regarded Residence but besides that these Canons were not much known in the East they were not properly made for establishing of Residence nor precisely to oblige Bishops thereunto but only to inform them in presupposing it as an indispensible Obligation in what occasions and for what time they were permitted lawfully to be absent from their Churches in effect in the eighth Canon the Fathers of Sardis allow Bishops may go to Court if the Emperor send for them or if the protection and defence of the Poor of Widows and Orphans oblige them to it It is true that in the ninth and tenth Canons they restrain the permission granted in the former and do not permit Bishops to go themselves to Court but when they are called by the Prince nevertheless they agree they may send one of their Deacons to obtain some favour in behalf of distressed persons but they consent to it upon prudent and judicious reasons and which are to be lookt upon as necessary precautions against the ambition of Bishops to whom the same Council positively forbid Can. 14 15. To be absent from their Churches above three Weeks unless some pressing necessity constrain them to it When under the second Branch of our Kings the Prince cast his eye on any Bishop to make him his Arch-Chaplain he was forced to demand leave of the Synod and Pope Con. Fran. cap. 55. Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 217. the Bishops of Rome having already got great power in France I say he was forced in some sort to desire their leave to get him away from his Church to have him near his person because every body was then perswaded that Pastors were bound in Conscience to make their Residence in the midst of their Flocks I believe Plurality of Livings as is spoken at this time has given a mortal blow to the case of Residency and has by this means introduced ignorance into the Church and together with Ignorance Superstition which is the Daughter of Ignorance this wicked custom was a long while unknown amongst Christians seeing the first Canon which formally condemns it is if my memory fail not the fifth of the sixteen Council of Toledo assembled the year
matters that those which were to be baptised were bound to recite the Symbol of their Faith to renounce the Devil to his Power and his Angels to acknowledge that they were by Nature Children of Wrath and to shew Repentance and Sorrow for their Sins committed during the time of their Ignorance and if they were instructed in the knowledge of Heavenly things they were also taught to live well that is to say holily and in a way answerable to their Vocation The Nature and Fruits of Baptism was explain'd to them They had also some Light of the Eucharist shewed them because they did communicate presently after being baptised and all these things were accompanied with Ardent Prayers to God as well to render him thanks for calling them to his blessed Communion as to implore his Grace and Benediction on them at the very instant that he honour'd them with the seal of his Covenant and Sacrament of our Salvation After all I have said the perfect resemblance may easily be seen which is found in the Matter I Examin betwixt our practice and that of the Ancient Church if you except what regards Anabaptists which appearing but in the last Century could be neither the Subject nor Matter of any of the Decrees of the Cannon Law CHAP. XII Of the LORDS SUPPER ARTICLE I. WHere there is not a settled Church it is not permitted to celebrate the Lords Supper CONFORMITY The reason of this First Article is because the Lords Supper is so called by reason of the Communion of those which participate thereof it is the Opinion of St. Chrysostom which he has thus Expressed Hom. 21. Tom. 5. pag. 312. The Apostle calls it the Lords Supper because all those which are invited take it in common with concord The Author of the Commentaries on St. Pauls Epistles in St. Jerom's Works saith That the Lords Supper ought to be common to all In 4 Cor. 11. The Lords Supper saith St. Isidore of Sevil is so called from the Communion of those which Eat of it and the Communicants from their assembling in Common Orig. l. 20. pag. 132. thence it is that Justin Martyr writes in his first Apology that they assembled on Sundays from the Cities and from the Country round about to hear the Word of God pag. 93. cum 97. and to partake of the Holy Sacrament and he also observes they sent some to the absent to shew doubtless the Communion they had together and I can't tell but 't was with respect hereunto that the Council of Laodicea conceived in these Terms the 58th Cannon Bishops nor Priest must not make Oblations in private Houses that is to say that they should not there Celebrate the Eucharist which was not begun to be celebrated without Communicants till about the 12th Century Part. 1. c. 11. as I have sufficiently proved in the History of the Sacrament II. Children under twelve years of Age shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper but above this Age it shall be at the discretion of the Ministers to Judge of those which shall be fit to be admitted or not CONFORMITY It may seem to be collected from the place in St. Justin Martyr which I cited on the other Article that only persons of Age and not little Children were admitted to the Holy Sacrament and it is very probable that Tertullian was of this Opinion because he thought fit to defer the Baptising of Children for some years as well as Gregory Nazianzen as I shewed on the foregoing Chapter It 's true that since the time of St. Cyprian until about the 12th Century Children were received to the Communion but this Custom is justly rejected by those also of the Church of Rome as well as Protestants In effect young Children are incapable of the Examination St. Paul requires of those which approach to the Holy Table III. Priests Friers and other Ecclesiastical Persons of the Church of Rome shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper until they have first made confession in publick of their past life and profession CONFORMITY This practice is wholly conformable to that of the first Christians It is not permitted unto any one whatsoever saith St. Justin Martyr to partake with us of the Sacrament unless he be fully perswaded of the truth of our Doctrine that he has been Baptized to obtain Remission of his Sins with a new Birth Apol. 1. p. 97 98. and that he lives according to the Laws of Jesus Christ IV. Dignitaries which bear the Name and Title of their benefices and those which therewith mingle Idolatry Directly or Indirectly whether they enjoy their Benefices by their own hands or by the hands of others shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper CONFORMITY Those here described not being in the State nor Disposition desired by Justin Martyr they cannot be received to the Holy Communion in a Christian Society whose Doctrine they do not believe or that don't gather themselves within the Laws and under the Discipline observed in the midst of them V. Ministers shall be warned not to receive to the Lords Supper Persons of other Churches unless they have sufficient testimony from its Minister or in default thereof from an Elder if it possible may be CONFORMITY The Church has observed this Order from the First Ages for the Council of Antioch in the Year 341 forbids in the Seventh Cannon to admit of any Stranger without having Pacifick Letters The Seventh Cannon of the First Council of Carthage Assembled under Gratus about the Year 348 speaks also more clearly forbidding plainly both Clergy and Layity to communicate in any other Church without their Bishops Letter Lib. 2. c. 51. The Author of Apostolical Constitutions prescribes almost the same thing Pag. 601 602. In the Third Volumne of the French Councils there is a Synod of Nants the time it held is somewhat uncertain the Two First Cannons whereof are imployed to confirm this same practice VI. A Man that 's Deaf and Dumb which by evident Signs Tokens and Gestures shewing his Piety and Religion what he can may be admitted to the Holy Sacrament when by a long Experience of the Holiness of his Life the Church shall perceive he has Faith and shall be truly taught of God CONFORMITY The Church never required of Communicants more than a Holy Mind and Disposition wherefore if it is found in a Deaf and Dumb Man and that he gives signs of it he ought to be admitted to the Sacrament and when I speak of the Church I mean that of the Primitive Christians for in process of time they imposed on Communicants an Obligation of Auricular Confession especially since the days of Innocent the Third who made the first Decree for it in his Latteran Council in the Year of Christ 1215. VII The Bread of the Sacrament ought to be administred to those which cannot drink Wine in making protestation that 't is not through contempt and doing what they can possible
Superstitions of the Church of Rome And as for private Actions and the corrections proper thereunto it shall be what the Consistory shall judge convenient CONFORMITY The same may be said almost of this as I said of the Third and add withal That after our Separation from the Church of Rome for things which we do not approve we cannot with safe Conscience practice any of those things which have been the motive and cause of our Separation V. Notaries Secretaries and others who by their Offices are obliged to Sign and Seal things indifferently which are presented to them shall not be blamed for receiving Testaments passing Contracts and dispatching Letters of things which concern Idolatry nor Judges for judging causes concerning Ecclesiastical Matters and the Execution of Edicts CONFORMITY The Authors of our Discipline have prudently permitted those of our Communion in preferrence to those of the Church of Rome to do all things as may be done without prejudicing ones Conscience or indangering Salvation VI. Arbitrators shall not meddle with any Matters that concern Idolatry directly nor Indirectly CONFORMITY There needs no other Commentary on this Establishment then what I have remarked on the Tenth and Eleventh VII Advocates and Attorneys may not plead in causes which tend to taking away Preaching and setting up Mass and generally they shall not be suffered to give Council to the Romish Clergy in causes which tend directly or indirectly to the oppression of the Church and true Religion CONFORMITY There can be nothing more just than to forbid all Persons of our Religion to Establish what we do condemn and to destroy what we set up VIII Neither Bishops nor Officials nor Arch-Deacons such as they are at present have by right any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical nor Civil Nevertheless because Believers are sometimes constrain'd to appear before them to gain their Right which otherwise were not to be obtain'd they may thither make their address being referr'd by the Magistrate to whom they are first to apply themselves CONFORMITY One may and ought also submit to all the Jurisdictions Established in a Country by Consent and Authority of the Sovereign especially when one is appointed so to do by Order of the Magistrate under this condition nevertheless That the Service of God be not thereby injur'd nor the Conscience concern'd IX Advocates that are Believers ought not to plead on any account whatsoever before Officials but only in cases for which one may prosecute their Right before them according to the precedent Article CONFORMITY This Article depending of the former its needless to look for any other Explication X. It is not a thing unlawful in it self to exercise Civil Jurisdictions and Procurations under Ecclesiastical Persons which do not at all concern that which they call the Spirituality CONFORMITY Seeing it is permitted to acknowledge the Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Persons on certain occasions and in the manner above established it may also be permitted to Exercise them XI Believers may not obtain nor publish Monitories nor Excommunications of the Roman Church CONFORMITY The Protestants not acknowledging the Popes Authority to be Legitimate they ought not to have recourse to it Directly nor Indirectly XII Inasmuch as it is not lawful nor expedient to go hear the Preachers of the Church of Rome or others that intrude themselves without being lawfully called the Flocks shall be hinder'd by the Ministers from going thither and those that will go shall be summon'd before the Consistory and sensur'd as the case shall require CONFORMITY It 's above Thirteen Hundred years ago that the Council of Laodicea made this Decree Those which are Members of the Church shall not be permitted to go to Church yards nor to Oratories of any Hereticks whatsoever either to Pray or to obtain the healing of any Sickness but the Believers that have so done shall for a time be deprived of the Holy Communion and upon confessing and repenting their fault shall afterwards be restor'd again XIII Lords Gentlemen and others shall be advertised not to entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons and especially if they suffer Priests singing Mass or discoursing to debauch their Servants or if they do anew take and receive such into their Service CONFORMITY This Establishment tends only to the purity of Life and preservation of true Religion which are things to which every body ought diligently to apply themselves XIV Fathers and Mothers shall be Exhorted to take great care in Teaching and Educating their Children which are the Seed and Nursery of the Church And those which send them to the Schools of Priests Friers Jesuits and Nuns shall be prosecuted by the severest Church Sensures Those also which put their Children to be Pages or otherwise to Lords and Gentlemen of the contrary Religion shall be advis'd how they do so CONFORMITY This proceeds from the same principle the other did and was made by the same Motives which are Motives very reasonable and very conformable to the practice of the Antient Church XV. Those who have Brothers Sisters and other Relations who having quitted Monasteries to serve God with a pure and good Conscience shall be Exhorted to assist them and to do according to the Laws of Humanity and Affinity CONFORMITY If Christians are obliged and they are obliged by the word of God and by the Ancient Cannons to exercise towards all Men Works of Charity of greater Reason should they do them to their near Friends and Relations especially when they are reduc'd to necessity for serving God with a good Conscience in departing from a Communion wherein they were fully perswaded they could not be saved XVI Ministers nor any else in the Church cannot Print Books made by themselves or others touching Religion nor any way publish them without communicating them to the Colloque or if need be to the Provincial Synod and if the matter require hast to the Accademies or to two Pastors which shall be nominated by the Synod and shall attest the Examination by them made of the said Writings CONFORMITY This Ordinance is very necessary to prevent all the evil consequences as may sometimes ensue without the Examination therein prescribed the same thing is done amongst the Papists whose works are commonly approved by some Doctors and at Rome by the Master of the Sacred Pallace See what I have said on the Fifteenth Article of the First Chapter XVII Those which take Pen in hand to treat the Histories of the Holy Scriptures in Meter are advertis'd not to mix therein any Poetical Fables and not to attribute to God the Name of false Gods and not to add nor diminish to the Holy Scriptures but to keep as near as may be to the Stile of it CONFORMITY This Article will find it self sufficiently explain'd by the things I have remarked on the Twelfth Article of the First Chapter whether I refer the Reader XVIII The Books of the Bible whether Cannonical or Appocriphal shall not be transformed into Comedies nor
through all the Churches These are the ardent Prayers that are made for you all by Gentlemen and Honoured Brethren Your most humble Servant and Brother in Christ Jesus M. LA ROCQUE Rouen 24o. June 1678. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE WHat Laws are in a State the same things are Canons in the Church All Societies of Men as well Civil as Sacred have always stood in need of some Rules for the conduct of those whereof it is composed and under their direction to attain the designed end which is pleasure of life with the repose of Conscience and tranquility of Mind Man ought of his own free will be inclined to the obedience of these in the main prospect of the pleasure there is in doing his Duty and in the delight which is to be found in the practise of Vertue besides that in so doing depends the happiness all men seek after but which few do find because they seek amiss Nevertheless according to the manner we are made it 's necessary we should be excited by other motives and be set a work by other principles these Motives are Fear of punishment and Hope of rewards the two great springs that give motion if it may be so said to the whole world and which do powerfully ingage men to eschew evil and do good Legislators have also employ'd it in the world the Apostles and their Successors in the Church and God himself made use of it in regard of Adam promising him Life and Immortality if he continued faithful and obedient to him and on the contrary threatning him with death if he were so foolish as to neglect the keeping his Commands and violate the purity of his Laws In the day thou eatest the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt die the death Man being a reasonable Creature it was suitable to God's wisdom to give him Laws to serve as a Rule and direction through the whole course of his life therefore he had no sooner created him but he imprinted in his heart those instructions which we call the Law of Nature the Exercise whereof was to constitute his joy and felicity so that had he always persever'd in his innocence he would not have stood in need of Judges nor of their Tribunals his conscience would have been sufficient for him its counsels would ever have been safe its decisions just and right and all its Ordinances would have tended to the practise of this important maxim of the Son of God which he drew from the very spring of Nature it self not to do to others but what we would they should do to us But sin having interrupted this Oeconomy and darkned the Lights which attended it all these directions of Nature have been ineffectual and these Instructions of no value Nevertheless 't is certain God preserved in Man after his fall or at least he stirred up in him anew by the efficacy of his Providence some little remains of that clear and pure light wherewith the understanding had been illuminated when 't was immediately made by his hand and thence it is that all men have the common and general Notions That there is one God That he governs all things That he punishes the wicked and rewards the good That to honour him is a Law that 's allowed amongst all men And that he must not only be thought to be immortal and blessed but also to be a Lover of Mankind of whose preservation he takes particular care in daily doing them good it was thereby that the Inhabitants of the Isle of Maltha concluded St. Paul was a Murderer Act. 28.3 they said when they saw a Viper on his hand Divine Vengeance followed him and would suffer him to live no longer It is also from this principle proceeded the knowledg the Apostle attributed to the Gentiles when he saith For when the Gentiles which have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contain'd in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But at length Sin having almost extinguished the light of Nature and made all its instructions unprofitable God was obliged to renew the knowledg of it by publishing his Law which in substance contains the same precepts as those did which God had writ at first in the heart of Men and seeing the greater corruption is so much the more need there is to multiply Laws to restrain its impetuosity and violence and so hinder its spreading and excess God who knew very well the inclination of the people of the Jews which were a people of a stiff neck and uncircumcised heart as the Scripture speaks a people inclined to disobedience and rebellion God I say not content to divulge the Moral Law he thereunto joyned the Ceremonial and Political Laws to the end the Israelites should the easier be retain'd in their duty under the heavy yoke of this severe Discipline Thence it followed by the Rule of contraries That the more Sanctification is advanced the less need there is of Laws which made St. Paul say That the Law is not made for the just but for the Sinners and wicked The first Christians had but very few Decisions and Decrees in their Discipline because being full of Piety and Zeal and that labouring with unspeakable diligence in the work of their Sanctification they disposed themselves voluntarily according to the nature of the Gospel and intention of Jesus Christ and conscionably practising the Maxim of the Apostle That all things should be done decently and in order in the Church of God they with ease were guided by the Divine motions of Grace and the inspirations of that holy Spirit which God had so plentifully and in great measure poured forth on his Church in the first Establishing of Christian Religion for as to the Canons attributed to the Apostles and the Constitutions which also go in their name they are things forged in the following Ages and after this new people had began to degenerate from the first heat of their zeal and that they had given some check to the innocence of their life and to the purity of their Manners and as corruption insensibly got ground so also was seen to increase the number of Canons and Ordinances for it commonly happens that ill actions do multiply good Laws without which it would be impossible to make head against the many Scandals that licentiousness does introduce where it predominates and where sins are not repressed and punished Something of this kind hapned in our Reformation which had a great resemblance with the first Establishment of Christian Religion for it may truly be said that by a particular blessing of Heaven the first Reformers were so holy in their life so pure in their conversation so wise in their conduct so modest in their words and so humble
practise but 't is much better to refer to the reader the liberty of judging of our innocence when he shall have Read the whole Treatise for besides that I cannot refute these injuries and slanders without discovering persons who have lately been forward this way unless I would write a Volume and not a Preface would I undertake to answer particularly to all the false accusations which they have alledged to render our Religion odious in censuring our Discipline Laying therefore apart these unjust Accusers 't is needful before ending this Preface that I speak a little of some others whose Learning and Reputation is better known and grounded and yet nevertheless going by a false Zeal or by some other motive unknown to me treading in the steps of the others do no less cruelly devour us I speak of those Gentlemen which accuse us of overthrowing the Morals of Jesus Christ by certain Doctrines which we teach an unjust accusation if ever there was one for if we destroyed the Sanctity of the Gospel it must needs follow of necessity that that which we follow must be pernicious And how can it be that our Morals should be corrupt seeing it produceth a Holy Discipline whose Rules and Directions are so many marks of the Maxims of true Morality I will not be the Judge I desire they would only read what I have writ to prove the resemblance of our Discipline with that of the Ancient Churches and I am perswaded that reading it without prejudice they will freely confess that my parallels are just and that I have drawn the Picture so like the Original that 't will be hard to know the one from the other there 's so much resemblance betwixt them after which I may be permitted to infer from the Holiness of our Discipline the sanctity of our Morals and from the holiness of our Morals and of our Discipline the truth of our Doctrine and by consequence the purity of our Religion I know 't is not absolutely impossible but that there might be a corrupt Moral with a good Doctrine for altho ordinarily these things march together and that the sanctity of the one is followed with the purity of the other nevertheless it may so happen that some may undertake to joyn a pure Doctrine with a corrupt Moral or a holy Moral with dangerous Doctrines Nevertheless because the Moral naturally follows the Doctrine that for the most part an Orthodox Doctrine produces a virtuous Moral and that when the Doctrines are true the Laws of the Moral are just I allow that those which belch out false accusations against us as Enemies of the Morals of Jesus Christ I desire they would judge of our Doctrines by our Morals because then they would judge of our Morals by our Discipline for there 's nothing more just than to judge of the one by the other If our Discipline then be pure 't will follow that our Moral is holy and by consequence our Doctrine is true by their own confession If they say that our Discipline is not pure they accuse of impurity that of the Primitive Church seeing ours is a faithful Copy and Representation of it if they confess it is good then they must confess that all our Religion is pure seeing its Doctrine is true the Moral holy and the Discipline blameless They may forbear then writing such great Volumes to vent untruths nor take such wide circuits to build on ill Principles and to draw false and unjust consequences for there 's nothing falser than what they write that we destroy the Moral of Jesus Christ by our Doctrine of Justification I say illegitimate for if the very consequences they impute to us might be drawn from our Doctrine which cannot be yet they could not in equity be imputed to us because that far from owning them to be ours we abhor them with our Souls What have we done to those Gentlemen that we should be the object of their malice and spight Where is the gentleness and moderation which the Spirit of Jesus Christ inspires Where is that Christian Charity that thinks no harm Would they recover at our charge what they have lost Would they be receiv'd into favour by our prejudice and make us a Sacrifice to appease a Party that would suppress them and against which they are no longer able to resist Must they needs quarrel with us because they could not succeed in their designs Heaven does not prosper mens endeavours when the flesh has as great a share in it as the Spirit when we mingle our Interest with those of God when we make Religion serve the World and when we go about to make I know not what mixtures of the Onions and Garlick of Egypt with the Milk of Canaan The time will come when we shall all appear before the dreadful Tribunal upon which shall sit an Incorruptible Judge who reading in our hearts and searching into the bottom of our Souls will make us give an account of our most secret thoughts of our words and our actions and happy will those be whose Conduct was sincere and whose actions had Faith and Charity for their Principle and the glory of God for their End ADVERTISEMENT THE Stationer hath in his hands the Attestation of Monsieur Cartaut and Monsieur Le Page Ministers at Diep and another of Monsieur Le Gendre Minister at Rouen declaring they have examined this Work and that they have found nothing in it contrary to their Religion In honorem ejus qui ex Anglorum genere natus hoc opus ex Gallorum idiomate in Anglicum transtulit ANte oculos posuit nostros Celeberrimus Author Lumina quae priscos dant prope quosque patres Hique Patre sacrum Domini dant tempore Coetum Quique eadem nostri tempora Coetus habet Os avidum Romae potuit sic claudere clave Ille decus per me perferat egregium Est alius quisquam divino Numine fretus Primam cui generis praebuit ipsa Diem Magna Britannia qui pugnaces quos-ve Britannos Edocet hoc verum voce suâ Patriae Inter eos igitur sit gloria utrique vicissim Eximioque Patri Praesidioque gravi Desaguliers M. Dom. Domino Walkero in Versionem Disciplinae Ecclesiarum Reformatarum apud Gallos QUae tibi plus debet Walkere Britannia forté Gallia forté Tuus seruit utrique labor Nostrorum scripta exornas Sermone diserto Externis anges divitiis patriam L. Rivall Sur le même pour Explication en Francois Sonnet L'Autheur de cet Ouvrage ij paroit dés la France Excellent tout à fait met devant nos yeux Avec beaucoup de soin beaucoup de prudence Les Péres de se siécle ceux du siécle vieux Son travail clairement montre que nôtre Enfance Est celle des Vicillars qui possedent les Cieux Rome tu dois bannir ta Lache médisance Pour la dissiper toute on ne peut faire mieux L'Autheur mérite
usual Sermons Those who have received the gift of Writing shall be chosen by the Provinces and if it happens any Book be Publish'd against the Orthodox Religion it shall be sent to them that they may answer it a Colloque being deputed in each Province to inspect what shall be Writ and Publish'd to dispose of the Copies as shall be thought fit CONFORMITY There was never greater Liberty of Writing than in the first Ages of the Church at which time every body writ in the manner which he thought best and most convenient without being obliged to communicate his Works to any to be Examin'd for their Approbation nevertheless seeing there has been at all times amongst Christians some Bishops and Pastors fitter for this purpose than others such were for the most part employ'd for the defence of the Truth against Schismaticks and Hereticks It was for this Cause that the Book of Phaebadius or Phaegadius Bishop of Agen in Guien written against the Arrians of the East and West holds the Degree of the Epistle of a Council of Vaison of the Year 358. P. 3. Paris 1666. and bears the Name in the Supplement of the Councils of France St. Austin even to his Death was the Pen of Africa against the Enemies of the Church particularly against the Donatists and Pelagians and St. Fulgentius in the following Age succeeded him in a manner in the same Office especially during the time that above Sixty African Bishops of which Number he was one was Exil'd into the Isle of Sardegnia for although he was the youngest of them all the Author of his Life does observe that he was the Mouth and Spirit And it may yet be said of these two famous Writers That they exactly observed the Modesty Sobriety and Decorum prescribed by our Discipline to all those who put Pen to Paper for the Defence and Vindication of Truth Examples which should be carefully imitated and in the mean time condemn the rashness of Agobard Bishop of Lyons who Writing in the 9th Century against Amalarius Fortunatus cruelly rails against him and much more that of Lucifer Bishop of Caillari against the Emperor Constantius in the Library of the Fathers Tom. 9. of the Edition of Paris 1644. XVI Ministers should not pretend Precedency one over the other CONFORMITY S. Jerom informs us in in his Commentaries upon the Epistle to Titus and in his Letter to Evagrius That at the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Govern'd by the joynt advice of the Priests or Elders and this form of Government lasted until that by the instinct of the Devil there arose Parties in Religion saith the same St. Jerom for then recourse must be had to Election so that to avoid Schisms and Divisions one of the Company was chose to whom Election gave the precedency to all the rest whereas before it was the time of promotion as is testified by the Deacon Hillary in his Commentaries upon the 4th Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians amongst the Works of St. Ambrose for he saith That at first the Priests were called Bishops and that the one being Dead the other Succeeded that is to say That it was granted to the Ancientest Priest in promotion to bear the first rank or place this primacy being a primacy of Order and not of Power and Authority over others the only primacy forbidden by our Discipline in effect the first admitted held the first place in the Pesbytery just as the Dean amongst Councellors of Parliament or as the Dean of Prebends in a Chapter From hence it is also that after the Establishing of the Hierarchy in the Church Equality was still observed amongst the Clergy except 't was in the Power of Metropolitans over the Bishops of their Provinces and also it was a very limitted Power seeing it consisted only in the right of calling the Synods of their Provinces to preside and to take notice of all Ecclesiastical matters which passed in the compass of their District only but could not decide nor determin without the consent of their Suffragans after the manner of speaking at this time As for all the rest they had no kind of prerogative but the Order according to the time of their Reception the which is punctually observ'd amongst us and accordingly St. Austin finds it strange that in the Letter which the Primate of Numidia writ to his Brother Bishops to Assemble them in a Synod I say he thinks it strange to see himself named the third in it knowing that there were several others before him which saith he is injurious to others and exposes me to envy Ep. 207 To. 2. And in the Life of St. Fulgentius Bishop of Rusp in Africa which the Jesuit Chifflet caus'd to be Printed at Dijon An. Dom. 1649. with the Works of the Deacon Forran it is observed Chap. 20. That in the Assemblies of Exil'd Bishops in Sardignia he was seated lowest of all although he was the most considerable in Worth and Value because he had been last of all Ordain'd to be Bishop Tom. 4. Conc. p. 422. The 86th Canon of the African Code so appoints it the 24th of the first Council of Prague in the Year 563. Ordains the same thing as also the 3d of the 4th Council of Toledo in the Year 633. and the 112th Letter of Gregory I. his 7th Book to which we may add the 6th Letter of Hincmar Chap. 16. in the 16th Tome of the Library of the Fathers Ibid. p. 581. Page 408. It is the Reason that in Africa one was enjoyn'd to observe the precise day of Promotion and the Consulat African Code Can. 89. which is the 14th of Mileva Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury held a Synod Anno 679. the 8th Canon whereof is conceiv'd in these terms Apud Bedan Hist l. 4. c. 5. Let no Bishop prefer himself before another through ambition but let every one know the Time and Order of their Ordination XVII Ministers shall preside in Order in their Consistories to the end that none might pretend superiority over each other and none of them shall give testimony of any matter of importance until they have first communicated it to the Ministers his Brethren and Companions CONFORMITY This Article is only a continuance of the former for if there is to be an Equality amongst Ministers so that they cannot pretend superiority one above the other it is just that when there are several in one Church that they should preside every one in his Turn and Rank in the Consistory and that none of them should do any thing of his own head without taking along the advice of his Brethren and even of all those who have share in the conduct of the Flock especially when there is question of any thing of importance XVIII Heed shall be taken to avoid the Custom practis'd in some places of deputing certain Ministers by the Provincial Synods to visit Churches the Order hitherto used being sufficient to have cognisance
the Mysteries of Piety and of Religion It was for this Reason that from the very first beginning of Christianity they had publick Schools wherein the principal Matters and Fundamental Points of the Religion of the Son of God was taught as has been proved on the 13th Article of the 1st Book Now to descend lower I observe that Charlemain who may be looked on as the first restorer of Sciences in a great part of the West I say he took care to settle Schools in Monastries and Episcopal Houses for the Instruction of Youth it is what he particularly enjoins in his Capitulary Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 152. c. 72. Ib p. 215. c. 19 20. in the year 789. Theodulph Bishop of Orleans declares in his made Eight years after the other That there were several Schools in his Diocess which he names and moreover appoints to have others in the Country and in Villages The 2d Council of Chalous on Soan made a Decree in the year 813. Ib. p. 308. Can. 3. which deserves here to have its place It is requisite that according to the command of the Emperor Charles a Prince endowed with singular Sweetness Force Prudence Justice and Temperance Bishops should Establish Schools where the Doctrine and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures may be Learned and where persons may be instructed of whom our Saviour may justly say Ye are the Salt of the Earth and may be the savour of the People and whose Doctrine may not only resist sundry Heresies but also the temptations of Antichrist and the Antichrist himself and that so it may justly be said of them in praise of the Church A Thousand Bucklers and the Arms of Men of might are there The Synod of Paris Ib. lib. 3. p. 549. Can. 12. term'd the VI. in the Year 829. make request to Lewis the Debonnair in following his Predecessors steps That he will be pleas'd by his Authority to procure the Establishment of some publick Schools at least in three of the most convenient places of his Empire to the end that his Father's and his pains might not be in vain Besides that this Establishment would be very useful and glorious to the Church of God and that by this Action he would make his name Immortal The Council of Meaux Tom. 3. Conc. Gall. p. 41 42. Can. 35. in the Year 845. requires that each Bishop has a Learned Man of a good and unblameable Life to teach and instruct Priests which have the care and conduct of People in the truth of Faith and in the observation of God's Commandments and to enable them to Preach that the Light of the Word of God may shine always in the House of God which is the Temple of the Living God It is also the substance of the 18th Canon of the 3d Council of Valentia in Dauphine Ib. p. 104. assembled Ten years after that of Meaux of the 34th of a Roman Synod held in the 9th Century Collect. Rom. Part 2. p. 43 89. under Pope Eugenius the 2d and which is repeated and inlarged in another under Leo the IVth in the same Century II. The Regents and School-masters shall sign the Confession of Faith and the Ecclesiastical Discipline and the Cities and Churches shall not receive any without the consent of the Consistory of the place CONFORMITY The Regents and Masters of Schools which serve in our Academies especially Professors of Divinity being called to teach their Scholars the same Truths as those Ministers are oblig'd to Preach to their Congregations and to have them live under the Law of the same Discipline it is just they should as well as the Ministers sign our Confession of Faith and our Discipline to the end their Lessons may be always conformable to the former and their Actions to the latter as well in regard of themselves as of those which depend on their Conduct I will not here repeat what I have said on the 9th Article of the 1st Chapter and which may conveniently be applied to that we now Examine it shall suffice to add that what we expect of our Regents is in substance the same thing as the Protestations made by Doctors in Universities amongst the Latins Not to say nor write any thing contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the Decrees of Councils III. The Doctors and Professors in Divinity shall be Elected by the Synod of the Province where the Academies are and shall be Examin'd as well by the Lessons they shall make on the Old and New Testament according to the Authentick Texts of Hebrew and Greek which shall be delivered to them as by Disputation of one or more days as shall be thought fit and being found capable if they are not Pastors the hand of fellowship shall be given them having first of all promised faithfully and diligently to discharge their Duty and to Teach the Scripture with all purity according to the Analogy of Faith and according to the Confession of our Churches which they shall subscribe CONFORMITY The Council of Chalons which was cited upon the first Article refers to Bishops and by consequence to their Synods the Choice and Establishment of those which are to Teach Divinity and the Mystery of Salvation and that of Meaux which we also cited on the same Article prescribes the Gifts and Qualities as well for the Doctrine as the Life and Conversation so that we may say it amounts near to the Establishment of our Discipline if you except only the form and manner of installation whereof these two Councils make no mention at all Pope Alexander the 3d Tom. 7. Concil part 2. p. 660. in his Lateran Council An. 1189. uses the 18th Canon to provide for the establishing and preserving of Schools in appointing Pensions to Masters and Regents it is the subject of the 11th Canon of another Lateran Council 36 years after that under Innocent the 3d which also declares There ought to be in each Metropolitan Church a Doctor in Divinity to expound to Priests and others the Holy Scriptures and to instruct them in things necessary for the guide of Souls IV. To the end there might be always good store of Pastors and that Churches may be always well provided with persons capable to conduct them and to Preach the Word of God the Churches are advertis'd to Elect hopeful Scholars such as are already well advanced in Learning to keep them at Vniversities that there they may be fitted and prepared to be employed in the Holy Ministry incouraging the Children of poor Ministers which are apt for Learning whereof the Colloques shall take notice Kings Princes and great Lords shall be desired and Exhorted to assist herein and to contribute part of their Revenue as also opulent Churches The Colloques and Provincial Synods shall give advertisements where and when they shall see occasion and shall use all convenient means that things so necessary might be brought to good effect and if single Churches can't do it
to the Council of Carthage in the year 407 speaks three several times of the Elders at Nova Germania and because there had been some difference betwixt this Church and Maurentius its Bishop and that nevertheless the Elders deputed in this affair to the Synod appeared not the Council assigned to Maurentius the Judges he desired and left to the choice of the Elders tho absent the nomination of those that should be needful to compleat the number and what is very remarkable in this conjuncture is that these Elders defended the right of the People which were the Bishops opposite party who complained of their outrage and calumnies What I have hitherto writ does clearly shew that when the Deacon Hillary complained that the use of Elders was abolished he had a regad to Italy where it had indeed hapned in sundry places though the same practise continued elsewhere as I have justified by many Examples after the time in which this Roman Deacon wrote I now proceed on farther and do say this custom was not extinct in France and Sicily at the end of the Sixth Century I say first of all in Sicily for Pope Gregory the First writ to John Bishop of Palermo Tom. 2. lib. â—1 Ind. 6 Ep. 49. p. 1083 and recommends two things to him one was To establish a Receiver by consent of the Elders and Clergy to give an account yearly to take away all suspition of fraud The other was not to give easie credit to reports that might be made to him of his Clergy but carefully to examine the truth in presence of the Elders of his Church I say in the second place this same practice was observed in France In effect Gregory of Tours has transmitted to us the Letter of an Assembly of Bishops held at Poictiers by the King's Command to take course about the disorders of the Monastry of St. Radegonda Hib. l. 1â— c. 16. and in this Letter the Abbess confesses amongst other things that she received Earnest for the Marriage of her Neece which was an Orphan that she received it in presence of the Bishop the Clergy and the Elders And in the year 585. King Goutran makes express mention of the Elders of the Church which he distinguishes from the Clergy in the Edict which he addresses to the Bishops and Judges of his Kingdom Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 391. I can't say but Agobard Bishop of Lions in the ninth Century might design these same Elders Lib. de Jure Sacerd pag. 135. Tom. 2. when complaining of Persons of Quality that abused Priests they had in their Houses He saith That by reason of these Domestick Chaplains They forsook the Churches the Elders and the publick service Now it follows I must treat of the form and manner of Electing our Deacons and Elders The Establishment I examin distinguishes the places where the Discipline is not yet setled from those where it is already received in the former it requires Election should be made by the Votes of the People and Pastors In the other it appoints that nomination shall be made in the Consistory and that it shall be signified to the People to have either their consent or their refusal because their Establishment depends on the liking and approbation of the People the nomination made in the Consistory no way depriving the People of their Right seeing the most part of those which do it that is to say the Elders and Deacons do represent the People and are invested with its power and rights It is therefore of the People either mediately or immediately that depends the Establishing of Elders and Deacons amongst us And herein our Discipline has Religiously followed the practice of the holy Apostles who referred to the liberty of the People the Election of the Seven Deacons the History whereof is mentioned by St. Luke in the 6th Chap. of the Acts. And 't is not only in regard of Deacons the Apostles proceeded in this manner they would also that the whole Church of Jerusalem should have share in Establishing Matthias Acts 1. who by common consent was added to the Number of the Eleven Apostles and when they Ordained ordinary Pastors doubtless they did it by the advice of the Assemblies of the People to the conduct of whom they intended to commit them Which example the succeeding Christians imitated very exactly as we have made appear on Artic. 4. of the first Chap. Our Discipline does not therefore prescribe any thing as to what regards the Election of our Elders and Deacons but what is very conformable to the practice of the Apostles and to that of the Primitive Christians in short if in the first Ages of Christianity the People had a good share in the Vocation of Ministers of greater reason had they in Establishing of Elders which were if it may be so said the Executors of their Will and the dispencers of their Rights And if our Ministers by the ninth Article of the first Chapter are obliged to sign our Confession of Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline agreeable to what was practiced in the Primitive Church it cannot be thought strange that we should also oblige our Elders and Deacons to sign them because they make up one body with the Ministers of each Church and do partake with them of the conduct of the same Flocks II. Hence forward as much as possible may be avoided there shall not be elected for Elders and Deacons of the Church those which have Wives contrary to the true Religion according to the saying of the Apostle Nevertheless that the Church may not be deprived of the labour of several good persons who by reason of the ignorance of past-time have Wives of a contrary Religion they shall be dispensed withal for the present necessity provided they shew their readiness in instructing their said Wives and in desiring them to joyn themselves to the Church CONFORMITY Having established as we have done the first Article this has no difficulty in it for St. Paul requires 1 Tim. 3. That Deacons should hold the mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience He also requires That their Wives be faithful in all things and by consequence in those of Religion and Piety which should be the only Religion of Jesus Christ both in Husband and Wife to avoid the great inconveniences which happen by diversity of Religions which Tertullian represents very well to his Wife in the Second Book he wrote to her III. The Office of Elders is to have care of the Flock with the Pastors to take care the People come to the Assemblies and that every one frequent the holy Congregations to give notice of misdemeanors and scandals to take cognizance and judg of them with the Pastors and in general to have care with them of all such like things which concern the Order Support and Government of the Church so that in each Church there shall be a form of their office in writing according to the circumstance
of time and place CONFORMITY In the Christian Church there has ever been persons appointed to take care of the conduct of those which were Members of it and to watch over their Flocks to the end no scandalous actions should be committed therein nothing that should be unbecoming the profession of the Gospel Origen at least tells us that in his time which was the third Century it was so practised for he declares in his answer to Celsus that there was in the Churches Lib. 3. pag. 142. of Cambridge Edit 1658 Persons established to take notice of the life and conversation of those which imbraced the Christian Religion that when they committed any evil actions to expel them out of the Congregations and on the contrary to receive with great affection all those which lived orderly and well to the end to improve and make them better from day to day Tertullian before Origen Apolog. c. 39. had sufficiently intimated this same practice speaking in his Apologetick of Censures inflicted on sinners in Christian Assemblies which banished from their Communion those which were convicted of heinous offences for example of Idolatry Murder and of Fornication which proceeding shews there was in each Church persons intrusted to keep watch over the life and manners of the People and these persons were the same which we call Elders which also is the name St. Austin gives them in the nineteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord and which at this time is the third in the Appendix of the tenth Tome In this Sermon which others attribute to Maximus Bishop of Turin and which is the 66th amongst those of St. Ambrose there is to be seen the Name and the Office of Elders the same in effect as they are amongst us for the Author whoever he be having observed that Soldiers and those in any Office could not bear to be reprov'd and to be told of their Duty he speaks after this manner When the Elders reprove them for any misdemeanor and that any of them are asked why they are drunk wherefore they took away other folks goods wherefore they committed murder They presently answered What would you have me do being one of the World and a Soldier Do I profess to be a Frier or a Clergy-man IV. The office of Deacons is to collect and distribute by direction of the Consistory the Money belonging to the Poor to Prisoners and to sick folks to visit and have care of them CONFORMITY It appears by Chap. 6. of the Acts of the Apostles that the Office of Deacons is what our Discipline does represent because they were first of all appointed to serve at Tables that is to say to take care of the Poor Oecumenius in his Commentaries on this Chapter of the Acts I now mentioned observes expresly that they were appointed to distribute to Widows and Orphans with care the things necessary for their subsistence According to which the Enemies of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage laid it to his charge as a great crime That being Deacon he hindered people from giving meat to the Martyrs whereas he ought to have carried them some himself Fascicul rer Expet fug fol. 32. vers Coloniae 1535. Cardinal Julian who presided at the Council of Basle remonstrates to Pope Eugenius the Fourth That there are several things he ought to do himself and others which he may refer to the care of those which are under him after the example of the Apostles who to attend the more freely to the Preaching of the Word instituted seven Deacons which served Tables and the administration of things of less weight It is nevertheless true Apolog. 2. pag. 99. that in the time of Justin Martyr it was the Pastor that distributed the Money to the Poor which was appointed for their Maintenance which was given by Peoples Charity But this Distribution in all likelihood was made by the Ministry of Deacons Cap. 39. Tertullian indeed in his Apologetick declares one had care of the Poor of Orphans of Old Folks of those which had lost their Goods by Shipwrack of those which laboured in Mines who were banished into Islands or detained in Prisons for the Gospel sake but he don't mention by whom it was done The Church of Rome in the time of Cornelius its Bishop that is about the middle of the third Century Apud Euseb Hist lib 6. c. 43. p. 244. maintained above 1500 poor as well Widows as others who were reduced to poverty or afflicted with sickness or infirmities The charity of that of Antioch was no less conspicuous than that of the Church of Rome as we find by some of St. Chrysostom's Homilies on St. Matthew particularly the 67 and 86th It is true we are not certain that the Deacons were charged with the care of these two Churches in the days of Cornelius and of St. Chrysostom but we know very well the Deacons amongst us attend on the things for which they were established by the Apostles that is that they should take care of the Poor and Necessitous according to their Primitive institution It was on this account that Fabian Bishop of Rome divided amongst seven Deacons in the third Century the fourteen Quarters of the City of Rome that is to say to the end they should take care of the Poor which were in each of these Quarters as is to be seen in the Roman Breviary on the 20th day of January and as Binnius observes in the Life of Fabian Tom. Conc. pag. 114. But what the Deacons did at first was in time performed by the Ministry of Oeconoms and others of which the ancient Canons make so frequent mention in such a way nevertheless that the Bishop had the chief power in the distribution which however was not done without the knowledg of these Deputies when they had taken the place and office of those first Deacons and that it is so I explain what Zozomen says of St. Epiphanius Lib. 7. Chap. 27. Read what shall be said on the second Art of the 4th Chap. V. The office of Deacons is not to Preach the Word of God and administer the Sacraments Nevertheless if necessity require the Consistory may chuse certain Elders and Deacons to Cacechise in Families as also it is permitted to Elders in absence of the Pastor to read Publick Prayers on working-days being chose by the Consistory for that purpose and that they follow the usual form in Reading the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament As for the Deacons who are wont to Catechise publickly in some Provinces the inconveniences which have already or may hereafter ensue being heard and considered the Churches where this custom is not yet introduced are desired to forbear and the others where it is to continue and to order that the said Deacons if they are found capable would enter into the Ministry of the Gospel as soon as they can possible CONFORMITY What I have said of the Office of Deacons doth highly
we Examine That of Charanton I say in the year 1623. enjoins Exactly to Examine as well the Attestations as those which have them to have from their own mouth testimony of their Religion and Instruction As for the Order our Discipline prescribes to give and renew from Church to Church the Recommendatory Letters it is the same in substance of that establish'd by the Synod of Sardis An. Dom. 347. in the 8 9 10 and 11. Canons and particularly in the last where it appoints Bishops which are on the way to Examine these Letters of Recommendation and to ask of those which have them the Cause and Reason of their Travelling or to subscribe their Letters if they are just and to refuse them Communion if they have fraudulently got them CHAP. V. Of CONSISTORIES ARTICLE I. IN each Church there shall be a Consistory compos'd of persons which shall have the conduct of it to wit of Pastors and Elders and the Ministers in this company are to preside as also in all other Ecclesiastical Assemblies CONFORMITY From the very first Establishing of Christian Churches there was in each of them a certain number of Persons to whom the Government of it was committed and who were distinguish'd from the rest of the People by the Offices which they Exercis'd and by the choice which had been made of them for supervising the whole Flock and 't is what we call Consistory Origen calls it the Ecclesiastical Senate and makes it parallel with the Politick Senate of each City to shew that the Ecclesiastical Senate very much surpasses the other being compos'd of Persons of more virtue and knowledg than those which are Members of Politick Senates in Cities The Ecclesiastical Senate or Consistory is compos'd amongst us of Ministers and Elders and it ought not to be thought strange that we joyn Elders with the Ministers after all we have said on the 3d Chapter particularly on the 1st Article where we have at large prov'd that the Elders have had share for several Centuries in the Government of the Churches and that they in all likelihood would have still continued if the ambition of Bishops and their Clergy had not insensibly abolish'd this laudable practise The Deacon Hillary as has been shewn complained of it in his time But altho' the Elders partake with the Ministers in Governing the Flocks yet the right of precedency appertains to the Ministers therefore in these testimonies we have alledged to prove that the Church has had great advantage in the first Ages of Lay-Elders like ours they are for the most part named after the Clergy II. As for Deacons seeing the Churches for the necessity of the times hath to this day happily employed them in Governing the Church as Exercising also the Office of Elders those which hereafter shall chuse such or continue them they shall with the Pastors and Elders bear a part in the Governing the Church and therefore shall frequently be with them in the Consistory yea even at the Colloques and Synods if they are thither sent by the Consistories CONFORMITY The care of the Poor making one of the most considerable parts of the Church-Government it is with great reason we therein admit the Deacons because they were properly instituted to attend on this thing as has been above proved at large III. In places where the Exercise of Religion is not setled Christians shall be exhorted by the Colloques to have Elders and Deacons and to follow the Ecclesiastical Discipline and at the said Colloques they shall be inform'd to what Church to joyn themselves for their convenience and exercise of their Ministry from whence also they may not depart without communicating it also to the said Colloques CONFORMITY In the places where there is no publick exercise of our Religion although there are a considerable number of Families which profess it care must be taken they do not live without Discipline and to this purpose there must be Establish'd amongst them Deacons and Elders to take care of the Poor and to watch over the Life and Conversation of private persons whereof they shall give account at the Church-Consistory to the which they shall be joyn'd for the publick Exercises of Piety and the Service of God and there 's no question to be made but something of this Nature was done in the Primitive Church Apolog. p. 98. for instance in the days of St. Justin Martyr that they Assembled from the Country and Cities unto one place which sheweth plainly these Assemblies were not made every where although according to all appearance there was in all places one and the same Order for the conduct of Christians to the end they should do nothing unworthy the holiness of their Profession IV. There shall be but one Consistory in each Church and it shall not be permitted to Establish other Council for any Church-business whatever If in any Church there shall any other Council be established different from the Consistory it shall forthwith be suppress'd Nevertheless the Consistory can sometimes call to its aid such of the Church as shall be thought convenient when occasion requires and that Ecclesiastical matters be treated of only in the place where the Consistory doth Assemble CONFORMITY There was not anciently in each Christian Church any more than one Ecclesiastical Senate as we have heard by Origen and this Senate was not properly any thing else but what we call Consistory which is a company of Persons which the Church does invest with her Rights and Power to Govern the Flock V. It is in the Power of the Consistory to admit of Father and Son or of two Brothers in the same Consistory unless there was some other reason to the contrary of which the Colloque or Provincial Synod shall take cognizance CONFORMITY The Church being the Spouse of Jesus Christ and by consequence the Mistress of all the Power and of all the Ecclesiastical Authority which resides in Her as in its Fountain and in the Consistories as in Societies which she establishes for the use and exercise of this Power She may then have authoris'd the Ecclesiastical Senate and the Consistory to admit into its Body the Father and Son or two Brothers provided they are agreeable to the Church which has in general given this Power to the Consistory VI. It is also refer'd to the discretion of Consistories to call unto them young Students although they have no Office in the Church but not without weighty causes and considerations and when their Wisdom is known the said Students shall be there present not to have any voice in what Affairs shall be debated but that by their presence there they may the sooner become fit and proper to Govern the Church when it shall please God lawfully to call them thereunto Nevertheless it shall be at the Pastor's free choice to demand their Judgment to make tryal of their abilities which shall be done with great prudence and caution and promise not to make
and Deserters but this Decree was not so soon observed in all places as may be gathered from the Writings of St. Pacian Bishop of Barcelona who writ after the sitting of this Council and it may also be said that before the middle of the third Century bare desertâ—rs were not received into the bosom of the Church but they were still left under the labour of Penance without any hope of Absolution no not so much as at the hour of Death it was at least the practise of most of the Western Churches Tertullian in his Treatise of Pudicity Cypr. Ep. 52. cum 14 31. and St. Cyprian in some of his Epistles suffers us not to call in question the use of this hard and severe Discipline no more than the mitigation which was begun to be used in it at that time at Rome and in Africa XX. In publick offences that is to say committed in effect and known to a great many of the People the restoring of the sinner shall be made by the publick acknowledging his fault tho he had been punished by order of the Magistrate CONFORMITY In the Primitive Church the restoring of a Scandalous Sinner was not done but in presence of all the People by the Imposition of Hands which was accompanied with Prayer and the better to understand the nature of this Discipline it is to be observed that three sorts of Imposition of Hands was used to Sinners whose Sins were punished according to the Laws of publick Penance by the former they were admitted to do Penance after having demanded it Let the Penitents saith the Council of Agde in the year 506. Tom. Conc. Gall. p. 164. Can. 15. receive the Imposition of Hands at the time that they desire to do Penance The second was not practised one time only as the first but often during the whole time of Penance for as often as the Church assembled to attend the Exercises of Piety and Religion they were made go out as well as the Cathechumeny before the celebrating of Divine Mysteries but after the Bishop imposed his Hands and Prayed on the one and the others separately so it is we find it by the 19th Canon of the Synod of Laodicea See 4 Conc. of Carth. Can. 80. Tom. 1. Conc. Toletan 3. c. 11. Tom. 4. p. 504. An. 589. It is requisite saith he after the Homilies or Sermons the Bishops make Prayers separately first on the Catechumeny and these being gone forth Prayer must be made on those which are under Penance and after the Penitents have been under the hands of the Bishop and that they are withdrawn the three Prayers of Believers must be made The last was destin'd for the publick reconciliation of Sinners after they had accomplished all the time of their Penance and that they had passed through all its divers degrees Therefore the 3d Canon of the 1st Council of Orange in the year 441. calls this Imposition of Hands Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 71. The imposing of reconciliatory hands because God was beseeched that he would pardon these Penitent Sinners and that he would reconcile them to God and his Church The 78th Canon of the 4th Council of Carthage calls it simply The Imposition of Hands Tom. 1. Concil p. 730. without which it will not so much as have sick Penitents to be Absolv'd in case they recover although they had receiv'd the Sacrament during their Sickness Pope Leo I. calls it the Door of Reconciliation in his 41st Epistle to Theodorus XXI Seeing Adultery brings a mark of Infamy especially on Women the Publishing such Offences is refer'd to the discretion of Consistories CONFORMITY St. Basil in his Canonical Epistles has prescribed something of this kind Ep. 2. Can. 34. Tom. 3. p. 32. Our Fathers saith he have forbid to publish that is to say to make known to the People the Women guilty of Adultery whether they confessed it by a movement of Piety or that they were in some sort convinced of it for fear that being Convicted we should expose them to danger of Death But they have appointed that they should be deprived of the Communion until such time as they should accomplish the time of Penance XXII Publick acknowledgments are not to be made but in person and the Sinner shall give testimony of his Repentance CONFORMITY What we have alledged on the 20th Article ought to serve as a Commentary on this seeing it was the Sinner in person which was publickly reconciled to the Church after having fully satisfied the Laws of Penance XXIII The Sinner which has been Suspended from the Lord's Supper by the Consistory and that the Suspension has not been declar'd to the People shall desire of the Consistory to be restor'd and shewing signs of Repentance shall there be restored without making publick acknowledgment CONFORMITY This Article is also very conformable to the practise of the Primitive Church which opened not the door of reconciliation in presence of the People but only to Sinners which were in publick Penance and publickly deprived of the participation of the Sacraments as evidently appears by what I have hitherto said As for other Sinners whose faults were not publick they were treated in a gentler sort and proportionable to the sins they had committed XXIV But him whose Suspension had been declared after his Repentance had been known to the Consistory by good Living and sufficient Testimonies he shall publickly be reconciled to the Church in acknowledging his offence CONFORMITY This Article being in substance the same with the 20. the Reader may see what we have observed on that it being needless to speak to this XXV Those who by their obstinacy and hardness in their faults have been cut off from the Church shall not slightly be reconcil'd to the Church but after a good and long proof of their Repentance they shall be heard in the Consistory and if they desire to be receiv'd into the bosome of the Church acknowledging their faults proclamation shall be made to the People to stir them up to pray and bless God and sometime after they shall be presented to the whole Church to confess and detest their faults and past rebellions demanding Pardon of God and his Church and so shall be reconciled with Joy and Publick Prayers CONFORMITY The Ancient Christians were wont to keep Sinners under Penance more or less according to the nature of the Crimes whereof they were guilty all the Canons which treat of this matter confirm it and one may only read them to find this difference the time of Penance of some being incomparably longer than of others because their Sins were more enormous and heinous and as to be hardned in Sin makes it more criminal so also they failed not to augment the punishment in prolonging the time of Penance sometimes even to the hour of Death even after the time that some mitigation had been made to the first Discipline in regard of some Sins which in
confer with the Ministers and Elders if they have not been sufficiently instructed And in case the gainsaying Brethren refuse to make the said promises they shall be censur'd as Rebels according to the Discipline and the Colloque being assembled shall proceed as above And if the said Opposers have been patiently heard and refuted by consent the whole shall be Registred if not the Provincial Synod shall be desir'd to meet extraordinarily if need require at the time and place that the said Colloque shall judge most convenient after the Promise as above-mention'd reiterated by the said Opposers The Synod assembled shall first of all consider with good deliberation and consideration of the Matter the Places the Time and Persons whether it shall be expedient that the Conference with the said Opposers be made in presence of the People the Doors shut or open and that Audience be given to any of the Parties present that would speak or not and that in all Cases the decision should belong to others than to those called in the Province and the whole according to the Order contain'd in the Discipline And that then if the said gain-sayers will not obey they shall make the same Promise as above and shall be transmitted over to the National Synod ordinarily or if necessity require extraordinarily assembled the which shall hear them with all Holy Liberty and there the intire and final resolution shall be made by the Word of God to which if they refuse to acquiesce from Point to Point and with express dislike of their Errors Registred they shall be cut off from the Church CONFORMITY This Article shall be Explain'd in what I shall observe on that which follows XXXII A Pastor or Elder breaking the Vnity of the Church or stirring up contention about some Point of Doctrine or of Discipline which he has subscribed or of the form of Catechism or Administring the Sacraments or publick Prayers or Marriages refusing to obey what the Colloque has determin'd shall then be suspended from his Office to be farther proceeded against at the Provincial or National Synod CONFORMITY A Council of Africa Ep. 71. p. 121. ult Edit in the time of St. Cyprian Deposed those of the Clergy which by their Rebellions disturb'd the Concord and Unity of the Church St. Basil in his 1st Canon of his 1st Canonical Epistle to Amphilochius prescribes after what manner one should act not only against true Schismaticks but likewise against all those which stir up Divisions in the Church and which also make Conventicles and Assemblies apart He speaks in the same place of Hereticks and as these are three sorts of Persons very different one from another this Doctor doth also adjudge diversity of Punishments But besides what I have now remark'd we have also several Canons of Ancient Councils which do favour the Order of our Discipline the 6th of the 1st Universal Council of Constantinople is against those which endeavour to confound and overthrow the Ecclesiastical Order The VII first of the 1st of Ephesus which is the 3d Oecumenical were compos'd against all such of the Clergy as well as People which should depart from the Decrees of the Council and that should adhere to Revolt or Apostatize The 18th of Chalcedon forbids all sorts of Fraternities and Combinations against the Church observing That seeing this Crime is forbid by the Civil Laws that it ought much more to be defended in the Church It is for this Cause ought to be cited the 21st Canon of the 3d Council of Orleans in the year 538. Tom. 1. Conc Gal. p. 254. Ib. p. 480. and the second Decree made by the Synod of Rheims in the year of our Lord 630. XXXIII In each Church there shall Memorials be made of all remarkable things in Matters of Religion and a Minister shall be deputed to each Colloque to receive and carry them to the Provincial and from thence to the National Synod CONFORMITY Pope Fabian who finished his Days by a Glorious Martyrdom for the Cause of Jesus Christ during the Persecution of Decius about the year of Christ 250. Pope Fabian Tom. 1. Coâ—il p. 113â— I say Established persons to Collect the Acts of Martyrs as is to be seen in the Pontifical Book commonly attributed to Damasus and it may truly be said this was the principal subject our Discipline aimed at in the Article which we Examine as appears by this Establishment of the National Synod of Privas in the year 1612. The Provinces shall be exhorted carefully to recollect the Histories of Pastors and other Believers which in these last times have suffer'd for the Truth of the Son of God and such Memoirs shall be sent to Geneva to be made publick In the same Pontifical of Damasus Ubi supra p. 30. which I but now spoke of it is observ'd That St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles had a long time before Fabian divided the seven quarters of the City of Rome to seven faithful persons of the Church that each might exactly enquire in his District the Acts of Martyrs in the number of which he was put himself Ib. p. 110. about the year our Lord 100. Pope Anterus Predecessor to Fabian did near-hand the same as was done by Clement But if that was done in the Church of Rome it was also practised in divers others St. Cyprian testifies it was practised by that of Africa in his 37th Epistle where he ordains That the Day of the Death of Martyrs should be taken account of to the end to celebrate their Memory It is in this regard Tertullian speaks De Coron c. 13. des Fastes of the Feasts of the Church and the Letter of the Church of Smyrna touching the Martyrdom of St. Pollycarp gives us also a proof of the thing now in question and which ought to be looked upon as the Original of what we call Martyrologies which comprehend not the Martyrs of one Church only but generally of all as can be discover'd in which 't is thought Eusebius first laboured CHAP. VI. Of the Union of Churches ARTICLE I. NO Church can pretend Precedencie nor Domination over another nor one Province over another CONFORMITY Let the Reader see what I have said already on the Sixteen and Eighteen Articles of the first Chap. where he will find this Article Established and its conformity to the ancient Cannons II. No Church can transact any matter of great consequence wherein the Interest or Dammage of other Churches may be concern'd without the advice of the Provincial Synod if it be possible to assemble it and if the matter be pressing it shall communicate and have the advice of the other Churches of the Provinces at least by Letters CONFORMITY This Second Article is also very conformable to the Antient Discipline according to which the Affairs of each Province were administred by the Provincial Synods it is partly the Subject of the Second Cannon of the First Oecumenical Council of Constantinople
That the Synod of the Province administer all things which concern the Province as it hath been agreed on at Nice That is to say in the VI. Canon of the Great Council which was held in that City under the Emperor Constantine and which ordained to preserve to each Province their Priviledges According to which if there hapned dispute about any point of Doctrine or Discipline which regarded Christians in general it would not be decided but by a general Universal Council that is to say by a Council compos'd of Bishops of the Five Patriarchs within the compass whereof were inclosed the Christians of the Roman Empire In Append. Tâ— 8. Thence it is that the Frier Maximus in Barronius acknowledged no Legitimate Council unless it has a Circular Letter made by consent of the Patriarchs John Damacen writes To. 2. Auct Court f. p. 696. That ought to be esteem'd an Oecumenical Council which the five Patriarchs have once appointed and made Declaration of But if there wants any one Patriarch or that he refuses to submit thereunto it shall not be a Council but a perverse Congregation an Assembly of Pride and Vanity In Collect. Rom. Part 1. p. 227. It is also for the same reason Pope Pelagius the I. wrote in the VI. Century That if there arises doubt in any ones mind by occasion of a Vniversal Synod those which are desirous of their Salvation must consult the Apostolical See to know the reason of what they do not understand In the Preliminaries of the Second Council of Nice it is observed there were read some Writings of Synods which prohibited the assembling of Universal Councils or at least of holding them without the consent of all the Patriarchs To. V. Con. p. 518. III. The Churches and particular Persons shall be advertis'd not to separate from the Sacred Vnion of the Body of the Church for any Persecution as may happen to procure to themselves any Peace or Liberty apart those which do otherwise shall be sensur'd as the Colloques and Synods shall think expedient CONFORMITY Partialities and Divisions having been ever destructive to the Church Union and Concord can never be too much recommended to those which are Members of it and which in this Quality are obliged inviolably to maintain Peace and Uniformity in Religion as well in regard of Doctrine as of Worship and Discipline It is the Reason for which the Antient Fathers have alwaies abhorred Schism and have vigorously acted against Schismaticks particularly against the Novatians and Donatists which cruelly rent and tore the Unity of the Church IV. The Disputes of Religion with Adversaries shall be order'd in such sort that ours shall not be Agressors and if they are ingaged in a verbal Dispute they shall do it but by the Rule of the Holy Scriptures not giving too much way to Writings of Antient Doctors for Judging and Deciding of Doctrines and shall not enter into Regular Disputes but by Writings mutually given and sign'd And as for publick Disputes shall not ingage therein but by advice of their Consistory and a certain number of Pastors which to this purpose shall be chosen by the Colloques or Provincial Synods Shall not ingage in any general Dispute or Conference without the Advice of all the Churches assembled in a National Synod on pain of the Ministers which shall therein enter to be declar'd Apostates and Deserters of the Vnity of the Church CONFORMITY There is found in the Writings of the Holy Fathers sundry Disputes which the Catholick and Orthodox Doctors have had against the Enemies of the Truth We have in the Second Century the famous Dispute of St. Justin Martyr against Tryphon the Jew who was the Agressor Eusebius makes mention of another Dispute which hapned at Ancyra a City in Gallatia towards the end of the same Century betwixt a Catholick Doctor and some of the Sect of Montanus In the Third Century Malchus a Priest of the Church of Antioch Disputed earnestly a ainst Paul of Samosatia Bishop of the Place and confounded him in a Regular Dispute the particulars of which was to be seen in the time of Eusebius they having been collected by Persons nominated to write what should be alleadged on both parts In the same Century was seen another famous Dispute betwixt Archelaus Bishop of Mesopotamia and the Heretick Manes in the House of a Person of Quality called Marcellus in the City of Caschara in presence of the chief Inhabitants of the place four of which although Pagans were chosen Arbitors and judged the Victory to Archelaus This Dispute has been printed in Latin some years past at the end of the Late Mounsieur Valois his Notes on the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates and Zozomen and St. Epiphanius treats amply of it in the Heresie of the Manicheans which is the Sixty Sixth I may instance in several Disputes principally those of St. Austins against sundry Adversaries but what I have said sufficiently justifies that the Order of our Discipline don't differ from the Practice of the Antient Church although it appoints something more of caution in the manner of Disputing by reason of the way of our former and present circumstances of living amongst our Enemies in this Kingdom V. The Churches should understand that the Ecclesiastical Assemblies of Colloques and Synods as well Provincial as National are the Bands and Supports of Vnion and Concord against the Schisms Heresies and all other inconvenients to the end they should use all endeavour and apply themselves by all means that the said Ecclesiastical Assemblies may be continued and maintained and in case some Churches and particular Persons would not contribute to the Charges needful to be present at the Ecclesiastical Assemblies such shall be surely sensur'd as Deserters of the Holy Communion which should be amongst us The Minister also which shall not promote what is above contained shall be grievously sensur'd by the Provincial Synod CONFORMITY There is nothing in all the Antient Discipline which is more strictly enjoyn'd than the holding of Synods where the Conductors of Churches were obliged to be as shall be shewn on the Eighth chap. and where by consequence they were to go at the charge of the Churches which they serv'd this is collected from the Eighteen Cannon of the Third Council of Toledo assembled in the Year of Our Lord 589 for it ordains that instead of assembling in Synods twice a year according to the Order of the Cannons Tom. 4. Conc. p. 405. they shall assemble but once by reason of the poverty of the Churches of Spain CHAP. VII Of COLLOQUES ARTICLE I. IN each Province there shall be a Division of Churches according to the Number of them and the conveniencie of Places into Classes or Colloques the most contiguous And this Partition shall be made by Authority of the Provincial Synod And the Neighbour Churches shall so assemble in Colloques twice a year or four times a year if it may be done according
Fasts an order which we exactly follow and which is grounded in that Jesus Christ nor his Apostles have not prescrib'd in any place of the New Testament on what dayes one should or should not fast as St. Austin has observ'd in his 86 Epistle to Casulanus IV. Those Churches which have been accustom'd to make publick Prayers on certain dayes may keep the order they have for a long time happily used and others may conform thereunto according to the means which God shall please hereafter to give them and as their Edification shall require CONFORMITY This Article has no other Scope but to establish an intire Conformity in the Churches as to what regards the Exercises of Piety and Religion can 27. Tom. 1. conc Gal. p. 199. near hand as when the Council of Epaume in the year 517. ordain'd that in the out Provinces for celebration of Divine Offices the same Order should be observ'd as is by the Metropolitan the same thing was concluded the same year in Spain in the 1 Council of the Synod of Gironda can 55. To. 3. conc pag. 806 and Anno 633 in the 2 Cannon of the 4 of Tolledo To. 4. conc pag. 582. and in the year 465 a Council of Vannes had appointed that throughout the whole Province the same Order and Rule for Divine Offices and for singing of Psalms should be observ'd V. There shall no Prayer or Sermon nor publick Alms be given at Burials to shun Superstitions and those which accompany the Corps shall be exhorted to behave themselves with modesty during the time meditating according to the object before their Eyes as well the miseries and shortness of this life as the happiness of the life to come CONFORMITY All pretence towards superstition whereunto Men are too apt to incline is in this Article endeavour'd to be avoided VI. Because Mourning don 't consist in Apparel but in the Heart Believers shall be warned to demean them therein with all Modesty rejecting all Ambition Hypocrisie Vanity and Superstition CONFORMITY This last Article prescribes Modesty and excludes Hycoprisie and Ambition which were generously opposed by the Primitive Christians CHAP. XI Of BAPTISME ARTICLE I. BAptism administred by one that has no Vocation is absolutely Void CONFORMITY The Author of Apostolical Constitutions contents not himself to forbid Women to Baptise he also prohibits all Lay Persons because they are not called to it in effect having employ'd the Ninth Chapter of the Third Book to shew that Women should not Baptise he thus begins the Tenth Neither do we suffer a Lay Person to Exercise any Priestly Function as to offer Sacrifice that is to say to celebrate the Sacrament or to Baptise or impose hands or to give the Benediction whether more or less for none takes to him this honor but he enjoys it which is called of God St. Basil was of no other Mind as the Jesuit Petau confesses in his Notes upon St. Epiphanius where he says St. Basil seems to have believed that Baptism conferr'd by Lay persons was Null and to speak the Truth this Holy Doctor speaking of the Opinion of St. Cyprian of Firmilian Pag. 351. and others which taught that all those ought to be Re-Baptis'd which had been Baptis'd by Hereticks he saith Epist ad Ampluit can 1. To. 3. p. 21. That they had appointed they should be purisied anew by the true Baptism of the Church no more nor less then if they had been Baptis'd by Lay Persons St. Basil would not have spoke after this Manner had he not been perswaded that Baptism administred by Lay Men is not true Baptism As for Baptism administred by a Woman cap. 17. p. 231. Tertullian had before condemn'd it in his time in his Treatise of Baptism and had shewn that they were not permitted to teach nor to Baptise St. Epiphanius in the Heresie of the Collyridians which is the 79 in order inlarges much in proving the same thing to stop the rashness of Women who would undertake to Baptise pag. 1059 1060. observing also that the Holy Virgin had not this power for if she had it Jesus Christ might have been Baptis'd by her rather than by John Baptist The fourth Council of Carthage made this Decree Anno 398 That a Woman should not presume to Baptise It is not then to be wonder'd that St. Epiphanius in the forty two Heresie observes as a thing blameable Tom. 1. conc can 〈…〉 That the Arch-Heretick Marcion permitted Women to Baptise II. A Doctor in the Church cannot Preach nor administer the Sacraments unless he be both Doctor and Minister CONFORMITY This Article is but a continuance of the former for seeing a Doctor in quality of a meer Doctor hath no vocation to Preach the Word nor to administer the Sacraments it is unquestionable the Baptism which he shall confer shall be no other than that which shall be administred by a Meer Lay Man to do it Lawfully he must not only be a Doctor but also a Minister III. A Jew or Pagan of what Age soever he be ought not to be Baptised before being well Instructed in the Christian Religion and that it appears they are so by their Confession CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Establishment but what was practis'd in the Antient Church St. Justin Martyr testifies in his second or rather his first Apology that the Christians of those times would not Baptise those who would turn to their Communion until after they had believed and were throughly perswaded of the Truth of their Doctrine and moreover promised to live conformable to the holiness of their Laws and profession Pope Victor the 1 ordain'd towards the end of the second Century as the Pontifical Book saith in his Life that in case of Necessity one may Baptise all those that turn from Paganism to Christianity either in a River or in the Sea or in a Fountain or in a Lake upon condition nevertheless that in the first place they should give an Account of the Christian Faith and make an open Confession of it The Ten Books of Recognitions falsly attributed to St Clement Disciple of the Apostles are very ancient but forged and writ before Origen who liv'd in the third Century in the VI of these Books at the end we read St. Peter Baptised near the Sea Those which had fully received the Faith of our Lord and Saviour that is to say those which believed in him and which had been Instructed in the knowledge of his Gospel St. Jerom expounding these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Math. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptising them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost St. Jerom observes In cap. 28. Mat. Tom. 6. pag. 66. the Apostles taught them first and that after having instructed them they baptised them with Water for saith he It cannot be that the Body should receive the Sacrament of Baptism unless the Soul has first received
the truth of Faith Tom. 5. Spirit pag. 203. which the forty six Cannon of Laodicea also prescribes St. Owen writes in the VIII Chap. of the 2d Book of the Life of St. Eloy Bishop of Noyon That he baptised every year at Easter those which in the compass of the year he could Convert that is to say those he could turn from the darkness of Paganism to the Light of the Gospel Paulinus Arch-bishop of York did the like in the same Century that is in the 7th as is related by Beda in his Ecclesiastical History of England Theodulph Bishop of Orleans follows the same method in his 1 chap. of his Treatise of Baptism Epist 104 105. Aleuin who approved not the Saxons should be constrained to be baptised by force alledged for a Reason that they ought first of all to be Instructed But to descend to the last Century Cardinal Borrome in the Fifth Council of Mâ—llan of which place he was Arch Bishop An 1579 Tom. 9. Conc. pag. 6.6 requires two things of Adults which are to be baptized First that they know the Rudiments of the Christian Religion Secondly That they repent of their Sins past I will add to all I have hitherto observ'd the practice of the Primitive Church which instructed the Catecumeny a long while before they Honour'd them with Holy Baptisme There is in our Discipline at the end of the Chapter we examine a Form of Baptisme of those which shall be converted to the Christian Faith And in the Thirteenth Century Nicetas Choniates composed one for Mahometans which desired to embrace Christianity Tom. 12. Bibl. Pat. p. 527. cum 531 532. The VI. Council of Paris Authorizes the Decree which it makes in the Year 829. Cannon the Sixth Book the First by the Practice of the Primitive Church To. 2. Conc. Gall. pag. 846. IV. The Children of Fathers and Mothers of the Romish Church and of Excommunicate Persons cannot be admittisme in the Reformed Churches though they were presented by believing Godfathers unless their Father and Mother consent to it and desire it and resign their Authority in quitting and yielding up to the Godfathers their right as to Instructing them with promises their Children shall be Educated in the true Religion CONFORMITY This Article is grounded on that Children depend of their Father and Mother without whose consent they cannot be disposed of nor christned against their Will into a Communion whereof they are not Members otherwise it were a Forcing People to be Baptized which the Church has ever condemn'd Hist lib. 6. cap. 17 King Chilperick as is related by Gregory of Touers commanded to Baptise the Jews that is to say he constrain'd several to be Baptiz'd which Pope Gregory the First did not approve as appears by the Letter he wrote to Virgilius and Theodorus the former being Bishop of Arles the other of Marsellia and is the Forty Fifth of the First Book So also when King Sisibute had done in Spain after the same manner as Chilperick had done in France Tom. 4. Conc. pag. 593. the Fourth Council of Toledo in the year 633 changed their violent practice in its 56 Cannon the Decree is contained in these terms As for Jews the Synod has Ordain'd that henceforwards no body shall be forced to believe for God has compassion on whom he will and harden whom he pleases and such should not be saved by force but voluntarily to the end to preserve intirely the way of Justice for as Man was ruin'd by voluntarily obeying the Serpent he is also saved by believing and converting to God when he calls him by his Grace let perswasion there be used and not violence to incline them to be converted truly and without any constraint Ib. p. 603 And 't is to be observ'd that the Ordinance of this Prince comprehended Children Hist Gothor in si se buto and Domesticks therefore St. Isidore Bishop of Sevil wrote of him having regard to this Edict That he had a Zeal for God but not according to Knowledge And we have already seen on the precedent Article that Alcuin Tutor to Charlemain did by no ways approve the force was put on the Saxons in those times Read his Letters in 104 and 105 and you 'l see the truth hereof insomuch as he deplored at the beginning of the former the misfortune of that People which as he saith often lost the Sacrament of Baptisme because they never had in their hearts the Sacrament of Faith Thence it is he teacheth in both of them that one must begin by Instruction that Faith is a thing voluntary and not forced that a Man cannot be forced to believe that which he does not believe But that it may not be thought the Subject I examin is of little importance and that it might be put amongst things indifferent to be done or left undone at pleasure it must be shewn there is nothing more contrary to the tenour of the Gospel than to constrain Men to imbrace the profession of it Jesus Christ the Author of this Heavenly Doctrine and the Soveraign Doctor of this Truth never imployed force nor violence to have it received he was content in Exhortations and Instructions which he accompanied with a hidden and secret vertue in regard of those he intended to call to his Communion and which he drew with efficacy but also at the same time with Sweetness with Cords of Love and Bands of Humanity and Charity The Apostles exactly followed his Example Exhorting Men to repent and believe the Gospel and praying them in the Name of Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God The Christians which succeeded the Apostles did just after the same manner cap. 24.28 Tertullian in his Appollogetick declares positively that the Liberty of Religion cannot be taken away nor deny Men the choice of the Divinity which they adore without rendring themselves guilty of the crime of Impiety and Irreligion because he pretends the Service of God ought to have a willing mind for its first principle And in his Book to Scapula he saith That 't is no Act of Religion to force the Religion which one should imbrace of free will and not by constraint Lactantius in the 20th chap. of the Fifth Book of his Divine Institutions saith There is nothing so voluntary as Religion which ceases to be p. 82. G. Par. 1544 at the very moment one has any aversion or hatred to it St. Hilary of Poictiers in his First Book to the Emperour Constantius Pag. 82. G Paris 1544. writes That God has taught the Knowledge Men have of him before he required it Authorising his Commandments by his Miracles not desiring a forced Obedience nor an unwilling Confession And in his Book against Auxentius Ib. p. 84. he reproaches the Arrians to have imployed Prisons and banishment to constrain Men to be of their side and to enter into their Communion St. Athanasius was of the same Opinion as he shews
of time t was left to the Liberty of the Bishop to suffer it provided that the consent of his Clergy also interven'd It is what may be seen in the Decree of Gratian cap. 16.9 1. c. 35. Moreover these Baptizing Churches which were otherwise named Plebes and Oracula were in so great consideration above others that Charlemain in his Capitulary in the year 793 chap. 2. will not have them possessed by Lay-Men to whom he forbids to grant them under the Title of Bennifice although that was not alwayes observ'd And it may be the Names of Plebes and Oracula was given to these Churches because all the People were wont there to resort to hear the Oracles of God that is to say the Word of his Gospel Inasmuch as our Discipline suffers Ministers to baptise out of the Assemblies when it is impossible to have them it agrees very well with the Seventh Cannon of the Council apud Vernum which I cited above where 't is permitted in case of Necessity to Baptize out of the places where publick Fonts were erected Moreover Vernum Palatium was one of the Kings Pallaces betwixt St. Dennis and Compeigne at least many do think so VII Seeing we have no command of Christ to take Godfathers and Godmothers to present our Children at Baptisme there cannot an express Law be impos'd on Persons to do so Nevertheless because it is an Antient Custom and introduced for a good end to with to testifie the belief of the Godfathers and the Baptisme of the Infant and also to maintain the Society of Believers in Friendship and Amity those which desire not to follow it but would present their Children themselves shall be earnestly exhorted not to be contentious but to conform to the Ancient Custom which is good and profitable CONFORMITY The Custom of Godfathers and Godmothers to present Children at Baptisme is very Ancient seeing Tertullian makes mention of it in his Book of Baptisme chap. 18. St. Austin in his Twenty Third Epistle saith they are presented by their Father or Mother or by others Tom. 2. cap. 2. 7. p. 215 216. 217 361. Paris 1644. the pretended Dennis the Areopagite in his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy speaks but of Godfathers which should be faithful and chosen by those which are to be Christned if they are Adults or by the Fathers and Mothers if they are young Children and he would also make the Reader believe that 't was instituted by the Apostles Gregory the First in his Book of Sacraments doth not also forget those which present Children at Baptisme As for Cesarius of Arles he declares in the Twelfth of his Homilies given us by Monsieur Baluze that the Father and Mother are to be answerable the VI. Cannon of the Council of Metz in the year 888 Tom. 3. Conc. Gall. p. 526. ordains that the Father or Mother of the Child receives it when it comes out of the Baptismal Fountain so great Liberty has been us'd by the Church in these things Read the Three last Testimonies I have mentioned on the Twelfth Article VIII Women shall not be admitted to present Children to Baptisme unless accompanied with a Godfather and after having made profession of the Christian Religion CONFORMITY In all Antiquity there is few or no Examples to be found of a Woman that presented a Child to be Baptized without a Godfather and much less of an unbelieving Woman in effect we have seen on the Seventh Article That those which presented Children should be believers What I alleadged of the Council of Metz on the same Seventh Article not destroying what I say on this if one reads all the Cannon besides that it has sometimes been suffer'd amongst us upon some Considerations as appears by the National Synod of Poictiers in the Year 1560 that 's to be understood in regard of believing Women though this sufferance is not at present in use IX No Godfather coming from another Church shall be suffer'd to present a Child to Baptisme without bringing a Certificate from his Church CONFORMITY Anciently no Stranger was received without a Testimony from his Church it is the Order of the Seventh Cannon of the Council of Antioch in the year 341. Let no Stranger be received without Pacifick Letters It is what appears also by the Fifty Eighth chap. of the Second Book of Apostolical Constitutions where we read that neither Brother nor Sister of another Church was to be received without Letters of Recommendation X. Those which present Children to be baptized must be of competent Age as of Fourteen years old having received the Sacrament Or if they are more advanc'd in Years and have not received the Lords Supper promise faithfully to do it and are duly catechised CONFORMITY Herraud Bishop of Touers in his Capitulary of the Year 858 makes this Ordnance Tom. 3. Conc. Gall. cap. 55. pag. 113. That none shall receive any at the Baptismal Fountain unless he knows by heart in his own Language and understands the Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed and that all know the Covenant they have made with God Ibid. pag. 526. The Sixth Cannon of the Council of Metz prescribes the same in substance in the Year 888 Tom. 9. Conc. pag. 548. and 615. Cardinal Borrome Arch-Bishop of Millan in the Fourth and Fifth Councils which he there caused to be held in the Year 1573 and 1579 orders the very same marking also as well as our Discipline the Age of Fourteen Years and to observe the exactness of our Discipline with that of the Antients it is to be known that we admit none to participate of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist till after he has given sufficient proof of his being well-instructed and of his knowledge in the Misteries of Salvation The Sixth Council of Paris precedent to all the Testimonies I have hitherto cited seeing it was assembled in the Year of our Lord 829 This Council complains in the Seventh Cannon Book the First That those which present others to Baptisme Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. pag. 487. and 521. have not knowledge sufficient to instruct them which he attributes to the negligence of Conducters and in the Fifty Fourth Cannon he will by all means have them taught to be able to answer for the Instruction of those which they present even serving themselves in the Seventh Cannon of some words of a Sermon of St. Austins to confirm what he sayes 163 de Temp. XI Those which are suspended from the Lords Supper cannot as Godfathers present Children to be baptized whilst their suspension holds CONFORMITY This same Council of Paris which I but now cited prohibits in the last of its Cannons that is to say the Fifty Fourth it forbids those which for some Crime is under Pennance and by consequence excluded from the Sacrament not to present any Body at Baptisme until such time as they are reconcil'd to the Church Cardinal Borrome in his First Council of Millan Tom. 9. Conc.
pag 453. which he held Anno 1565 forbids the same thing to all that are Excommunicated XII Ministers shall diligently warn Godfathers and Godmothers to weigh and consider the promises they make at the Celebration of Baptisme and Fathers and Mothers also to choose Godfathers and Godmothers well instructed in Religion and of good Life and Conversation and that may be of their Acquaintance as near as may be and that by their means there may be appearance in case of need the Children may be well Educated CONFORMITY The Author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy Tom. 2. cap. 7. p. 361 362. under the name of Dennis the Areopagite prescribes just what is appointed by our Discipline Jonas Bishop of Orleans follows the same Steps in the Ninth Century and Establishes by the words of St. Austin the Duties wherein Godfathers and Godmothers stand bound to those which they present to be Baptized it is to what he imploys the Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Instruction of the Layity and the words of St. Austin he makes use of Tom. 1. Spicil pag. 19. are taken out of the Sermon 133 of Time which is in the Tenth Tome of his works Tom. 9. Conc. pag 453. Cardinal Borrome in his first Council of Millan Anno 1565 follows the same steps with the Antients ordering to warn Godfathers of their Duty towards their Neophytes Tom. 5. Spicil pag. 212. both as to Doctrine and Manners where Fathers and Mothers are wanting A long while before this Council of Millan St. Eloy had recommended the same thing to Godfathers and in the Second Book of Capitularies chap. 46. Godfathers are enjoyn'd to apply themselves to teaching Children they have presented in Baptism because they have answer'd for them It is also the subject of a Cannon of a Council of Reims in Reginon Lib. 1. cap. 272. XIII Those which by Trustees shall present Children to be Baptized in the Churches of Rome shall be severely sensur'd as consenting to Idolatry CONFORMITY In the Antient Church those which lived in a Communion separate from others never presented their Children to be baptized in those Societies whereof they were not Members and with whom they held no fellowship nor correspondence in matters relating to Religion and the service of God XIV As for Names given to Children Ministers shall reject as much as in them lies and as shall be expedient those that savour of Antient Paganisme and shall impose on the said Infants the Names attributed to God in the Church as Emanuel and the like and moreover shall admonish Fathers and Godfathers to choose Names approv'd in the Holy Scripture as much as may be possible If they have a desire to some other they may be admitted those abovesaid only excepted and such as may tend to indecency CONFORMITY Dennis Bishop of Alexandria observes in Eusebius That the Antient Christians were wont to give their Children the Names of Peter Paul and other Holy Men as well to shew the Love and Respect they bore those Holy Persons as to render their Children as dear in the sight of God as those Holy Men were St. Chrysostom writes that the Antiochians loved Miletius their Pastor so tenderly that they call'd their Children by his Name for this end forgetting that of their Ancestors And in the Twenty First Homily on Genesis which is in the Second Volumne he Exhorts his Auditors not too lightly to impose all sorts of Names no not even those of their Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers and those which have been illustrious by Birth on their Children but rather the Names of these Holy Men which have been celebrated for their Vertues and in favour with God and elsewhere he complains of those which do otherwise according to which Eusebius speaks in his Book of the Martyrs of Pallestine chap. 11. of Five Martyrs that having quitted the Names they received from their Fathers because saith he they were it may be some Idol Names they took the Names of Elias of Jeremiah of Esaiah of Samuel and Daniel The Fourth Council of Millan whereof we spake on the Tenth Article requires this Custom to be followed I think therefore our Discipline does very well in keeping the medium betwixt too great a Severity and too great Indulgence whereunto the Establishments of our National Synods agree very well on this Article XV. Ministers shall warn their Flocks to behave them with all due Reverence when the Sacrament of Baptism is administred And to avoid the contempt most People make of Baptism either going out of the Assembly or behaving themselves in it irreverently when it is administred it has been thought good that for the future it be administred before singing the last Psalm or at least before the last Prayer and the People shall be warned to bear the same Reverence in the Administration of Baptism as of the Lords Supper seeing Jesus Christ with his benefits is offered us in the one as well as the other Sacrament CONFORMITY In the Fifth Action of the Council of Constantinople under Memma Tom. 4. Conc. pag. 109. which was its Bishop about the Year of our Lord 536 there is a request of the Church of Apamia where is shewn the profound respect one ought to have in the time of administring Baptism thence it is the Antient Doctors do call it a Mistery or terrible Misteries There is in the Euchology or Ritual of the Greek Church an excellent Oration to the Catecumeny which are on the point of receiving Baptisme Pag. 340. Par. 1647 in the which is represented in a touching and Pathetical manner the dignity of this August Sacrament with the reverence and holy fear one should have when one celebrates it Cardinal Borrome in his Fifth Council of Millan assembled Anno Dom. 1579. Appoints all Curates To warn frequently all those which assist at the Celebration of Holy Baptisme Tom. 9. Conc. pag. 616. to bring all manner of Piety Devotion and attention meditating secretly and with care the promises they have made to God when they were Baptized It is not therefore to be wonder'd if St. Chrysostom speaks of the Baptismal Fountain as of a redoubtable and desirable Pool both together In illud fiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 reg Caesor Patrisam Tom. 6. p. â—â—0 and if he Exhorts those which are going to be baptized to prostrate themselves as Captives before their King to cast themselves on their knees lifting up their hands to Heaven where the King of us all saith he is sitting on a Royal Throne because in effect we owe this respect and veneration to his Sacraments at all times that we are present when they are Celebrated XVI The Consistory shall have an Eye over those which without great Considerations keep their Children long from being Baptized CONFORMITY St. Cyprian Ep. 59. pag. 95. or rather a Synod of 66 Bishops of which he was Chief appointed that Infants newly born should be Baptised without deferring too long Baptising them and
condemned the Opinion of a certain Bishop called Fidus that would have it put off to the Eighth day as formerly to Circumcise them Pope Syricius in his Letter to Himerius Bishop of Tarragona Tom. 1. conc c. 2. pag. 689. writes towards the end of the 4th Century that he thinks convenient young Infants should speedily be Baptis'd The V. Cannon of the Council of Gironda in Catalonia assembled in the year 517 prescribes that they should be baptised the very same day they are born if it happen they are infirm which is very common Tom. 3. conc pag. 806. Peter Chrisologus Bishop of Ravenna shews sufficiently in his 10th Homily that care must be taken to administer Baptism to young Children Him that writ the forged Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in the name of Dennis the Areopagite Tom. 2. pag. 360 361. is of the same Mind and even attributes it to the Apostles although he determines not exactly the time I should never have done should I produce all the Testimonies of the Antients touching the Baptising young Children seeing it has always been practis'd in the Church my design is chiefly to shew that the Authors of our Discipline had reason when they appointed not to defer Baptising of young Children too long and I have sufficiently shewed that this practise is conformable to that of the Antient Church Nevertheless it is not to be thought this practise has always been so well establish'd in the Church that it has not found some Opposers Tertullian in the Eighteenth Chapter of his Treatise of Baptism would have their Baptism put off till they were of Age to give an account of their Faith Gregory of Nazianzen don't go quite so far Orat. 40. p. 658. To. 1. but at least it should seem convenient they should be of three or four years of Age before they receive the honour of Baptism because he thinks at that Age they may understand some questions as may be asked them and make answer thereunto The Christians of Thessaly referred the Christening of their Children till Easter whatever accident befell them so that a great many of them dyed without Baptism as Socrates observes in his Ecclesiastical History Chap. 12. Book 5. The more I consider all these things the more I approve the Conduct of our Discipline which prudently enjoyns Consistories to take care that the Baptising of Infants should not be deferr'd too long As for Adults it is well known that in the Primitive Church many deferr'd their Baptism a long while and many times to the end of their Life but it is also known that the Fathers have condemned those which did after this Manner XVII Although a believing Man has a Wife of the contrary Religion yet is he not excused if his Child be presented to be Baptis'd in the Romish Church and therefore shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper unless it be so that he has hinder'd it with all his might CONFORMITY Besides what I have said on the 13th Article it must be observed that the Father is Master of his Children and shall joyn to this remark the 14th Cannon of the Council of Calcedon which prescribes to Readers and Singers which are Married not to permit their Children to be Baptised elsewhere than in the Catholick Church if by chance their Wifes lived in another Communion and if unknown to them they have caused them to be Baptized in the Society whereof they are Members it enjoyns them that is to say the Husbands to bring them back into the bosom of the Church out of the which they have been Baptis'd XVIII Baptisms shall be Registred and carefully kept in the Church with the Names of Fathers and Mothers and Godfathers and Godmothers and Children baptised and the Fathers and Godfathers shall be bound to bring a Ticket wherein shall be contain'd the Name of the Child of the Father and Mother and Godfather and Godmother thereof and the Day of its Birth also shall be expressed CONFORMITY The Author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy falsly attributed to Dennis the Areopagite makes mention of this Custom according to which was Register'd the Names of those which were Baptised Tom. 2. cap. 2. and of the Persons which presented them The Friar Maximus his Scholiast confesses it so in the VII Century As he fully explains himself in his Notes on the place we but now obser'd and Pachymeres who made a Paraphrâ—se on this same Writer in the 13th Century has not passed over this Circumstance in silence observing that the Priests and Deacons wrote on Holy Tables the Names of them who were Christened and of their Godfathers It 's true he was mistaken in thinking these Tables was that which in the Church was called the Book or the Diptyches of the Living for this publick Begister where the Names of the Baptised and those which presented them was a different thing from the Sacred Diptychs which were a kind of little Book of two Leaves in one of which was writ the name of the Living whereof there was commemoration made at the time of Celebrating the Eucharist However it be pag. 216. pag. 341.342 Tom. 9. conc pag. 412. cap. 2. de reform Matrim I make no question but the Greek Ritual makes allusion to the practise I Examin in a fine Exhortation which the Bishop makes to the Catechumeny on Good Friday The Council of Trent in the 24th Session Anno 1563. appoints Curats to write the Names of the Baptised and of the Godfathers and Godmothers Cardinal Borrome who glory'd to hold to the Decisions of the Council of Trent Ibid. p. 453. and to see them put in Execution failed not to prescribe to his Curats in the first Council of Millan held in the year 1565 Ibid. p. 548 549 674. to have a Book and therein to write the Names and Surnames of the baptised also of Father and Mother and Godfathers and Godmothers together with the day of the Childrens birth and of that when they are baptis'd which he also repeats in two other Councils held in the same place that is in the 4th and 5th XIX The Names of Fathers and Mothers of unlawful Children or Bastards shall be Register'd in the Church Book that they may be known except such as are born in Incest to the end to extinguish the remembrance of so heinous a Sin in which case it shall suffice to name the Mother with him or her that shall present the Child And in all illegitimate it shall be said that they are not born in Lawful Marriage CONFORMITY This Article is much the same with the precedent One saving only that there is question of Children born in unlawful Copulation which our Discipline requires to have their baptism Register'd on condition nevertheless that it shall be observed they are born bastards it is to what amounts the Ordinance of Cardinal Borrome in the place of the Council of Millan but just now cited for he enjoyns that it be marked in
Ancient Eastern Manuscript he sets down insufficiency as a lawful cause of separation with free liberty to the other party whither the Man or Woman to re-marry XV. Marriages shall be proposed in the Consistory with sufficient attestations of promises CONFORMITY This Establishment is to prevent Clandestin Marriages I will shew on the 19th Article that it is conformable to the Ancient Discipline XVI Baines shall be asked in places where the Parties do reside and are known and if they will be Married in some other place than where their Banes have been called they shall take sufficient attestation that they have been published three several times CONFORMITY Pope Innocent the third making Answer to the Bishop of Beavais in the 4th Book of Decretals Tit. 1 de Sponsal cap. 27. makes mention of a publication of Banes and in the Council of Latran which he assembled in the year 1215 he appointed that the Custom of publishing Banes of Marriage in Churches observed in some places should be generally observed in all places Tom. 7. conc cap. 51. p. 818 accordingly we Read in the second volume of Dom. Luke D' Achery a Benedictine Friers Spirilegium that Nicholas Bishop of Anger 's prohibited in the year 1270 pag. 217 221 222. to confirm or celebrate any marriage whatsoever until publication was first made of it in the Church he also mentions the same practise in another Synod in the year 1274 Ib. p. 255. Tom. 9. conc pag. 411. Decret de refor Matrim cap. 1. which William his successor also renewed in the year 1304. The Council of Trent in the 24th Session the 11th of November 1563. the 8th under Pius the IV prescribes also the same thing Cardinal Borrome failed not to confirm this custom and to recomend the observing of it in his Councils at Millan and 't is to be observed the testimonies I have alledged require that publication shall be made in the Churches of the parties contracting XVII Banes shall be published three several Sundays in places when there is Sermons and in other places when publick prayers may be said However the Publication ought to continue the space of 15 dayes after which time the Marriage may be Solemniz'd in the Assembly and even on the third Sunday CONFORMITY The same Testimonies I alledged on the foregoing Article do prescribe in substance the same thing as our Discipline doth for some will have it that the publication now spoke of should be made in a certain time which should give leisure to those who would oppose a Marriage to prepare their Reasons others that Banes should be asked several times on Holy-daies others to the Number of three several times XVIII Those which live in places where the usual Exercise of Religion is not Established may cause their Banes to be published in Romish Churches inasmuch as 't is a matter partly political CONFORMITY The publishing of Banes being a thing meerly political our Discipline had reason when it suffer'd those of our Religion in the case hinted at to have them done in Temples of the Romish perswasion XIX The Churches shall not Marry any body without having ful knowledge and approbation CONFORMITY Besides what I have said on the second Article it appears by the first Cannon of the Council of Laodicea that Clandestin Marriages were condemned even in that time There is in the third Volume of Councils a Decree of Pope Hormisdas taken out of Gratian and is conceived in these Terms Can. 2. pag. 801. That no Believer of what quality soever do not Marry clandestinely and in secret but let him Marry publickly in our Lord Tom. 3. conc Gal. pag. 116. Tom. 7. conc pag. 818. in receiving the Priests Benediction This Hormisdas was Pope in the beginning of the 6th Century Herrald Bishop of Tours makes the same prohibition in the 130 chap. of his Capitulary Anno Dom. 858. and the 15th Can. of those which Pope Innocent the third proposed and caused to pass at the Council of Latteran in the year 1215 contain the very like constitution It is therefore that in our Churches no Stranger is Married without having a good attestation from the Church whereof he is member to know if the Banes have there been published three several Lords dayes without any opposition Cardinal Borrome in his second Council of Millan Anno Dom. 1569 Decree 26 will have it so practis'd Tom. 9. conc pag. 590. according to the Ordinance of the Council of Trent XX. When one of the parties is of a contrary Religion the promises of Marriage shall not be received nor published in the Church until the party of contrary Religion be sufficiently instructed doth protest publickly in the Church of the place where the said party is known that with full resolution he renounces all Idolatry and Superstition particularly the Mass and will by Gods assistance persevere therest of his life in his true worship and service of which instruction the Consistory shall take account And it shall not be lawful for any Pastor or Consistory to do otherwise under pain of being suspended and even of being turn'd out of their office CONFORMITY Even from the first Ages of Christianity the Orthodox were forbidden to Marry with Persons which were not of their Communion but of some other Sect which was looked on as Heretical and contrary Tom. 1. conc pag. 234. The Council of Elebori or Eluira in Spain in the year 305 imploys to this purpose the 6th of its Cannons The 10th and 31st of Laodicea about the year 360 treat of the same thing But the 14th of Calcedon is more full for it prohibits those kind of Marriages unless him that intends to Marry an Orthodox Maid Let. G. c. 12. doth promise to be converted to the true Faith The Frier Blastares in his Pandects printed at Oxford of whom I have spoke already explaining this Cannon of Chalcedon makes two considerable remarks first that the Consummation of Marriage now spoke of ought to be deferr'd until the Heterodox party has accomplish'd his promise the second that the same thing is to be required of Latins that is to say of those of the Church of Rome when they desire to marry Women that are Orthodox an evident proof that the Latin Church was esteemed a Hetorodox Church by the Greeks in Blastares's time which was in the XIV Century I may alledge several other Cannons against the Marriages now spoke of Tom. 1. conc Gall. pag. 231. 242. as the 72 of the 6th Oecumenical Council at the end of the 7th Century The 19th of the 2d Council of Orleans in the year 533. the 6th of that of Auvergne assembled 2 years after and the 25 and 26 Decrees of the 1 Title of the 2d Council of Millan which I cited on the foregoing Article If from Councils we pass to Ecclesiastical Writers Tom. 1 p 239 240. we shall find several which have explained themselves after the same manner
St. Ambrose in the 9th chapter of his first Book touching Abraham speaks so clearly Tom. 2. p. 1071. and alleages such strong Reasons that 't is not to be doubted but he condemned Marriages contracted betwixt Persons of different Religions it is what he teaches also on the 118th Psalm and according to the Hebrews the 119th pag. 232. And in the 24th Epistle of the Third Book in the 5th Volume of his Works he is not far from this Opinion The Deacon Hillary in the Third Volume of the Writings of the same St. Ambrose explains the words of the 39th verse of the 7th chap. of the 1st Epistle to the Cor. Let her marry in the Lord by these to a man of her own Religion and Balsamon to an Orthodox Lic G. c. 4. in interpreting the 41 Cannon of the Second Canonical Epistle of St. Basil Blastares on this same Cannon to a believing man XXI If one of the Parties that desire to be Marryed is Excommunicated the Marriage shall not be admitted in the Church unless the Excommunicate Person makes confession of his faults As for those which are suspended from the Lords Supper the Consistory may permit them to marry notwithstanding the suspension however having good reason for it CONFORMITY Excommunicate Persons not being looked upon as Members of the Church during the time of Excommunication it is absolutely necessary they should make publick acknowledgement of their faults to repair the Scandal they have committed before one can proceed to Celebrate their Marriage And I have shewn on the 11th Article of the 11th Chapter that they were not so much as suffer'd to present a Child to Baptisme XXII The Panes of Widows which re-marry shall not be published in the Church till Seven Months and half at least after the Decease of their Husband to avoid the Scandals and inconveniencies may happen by it unless it so happen that the Magistrates Order may interpose to the contrary CONFORMITY Herraid Bishop of Touers in his Capitulary of the Year 858 Tom. 3. Conc. Gall. cap. 41. p 113 Tom. 2. Bibl. Jur. Can. Just p. 1075. ad 1078. Litt. B. c. 8. G. c. 4. assigns but 30 Dayes but Photius in the 2. chap. of the 13. Title of his Nomocanon requires there should be a years mourning before a Woman should marry again unless the Prince suffer her to marry in the first year of her Widowhood or that she had not layn In till the end of the year The Frier Blastares of whom I have so often spoke proves this same practice by the Laws of Emperours and also doth Photius to which our Discipline well agrees XXIII Marriage shall be celebrated publickly in the Company of Believers and that by the Ministry of the Pastors and none else CONFORMITY It is a very long time since Christians have been wont publickly in the Church to cellebrate Marriage seeing Tertullian in the Fourth chap. of his Book of Pudicity causes those which have not done so to pass for Adulterers and Fornicators and in the Eighth chap. of the Second Book he writes to his Wife he publishes the happyness of those which the Church has bless'd this benediction preventing the course of private Meetings Tom. 1. Conc. Ann. 358 pag. 728. Tom. 3. and of Clandestine Marriages Thence it is the Fourth Council of Carthage orders Fathers and Mothers or the Bridegrooms to present the Bride and Bridegroom whose Marriage is to be Celebrated Pope Hormisdas in the beginning of the Sixth Century appoints also it should be done publickly in the Church There is in the Book of Sacraments of Gregory the First which Maynard a Benedictine Frier has Printed pag. 286. a whole Liturgy about Cellebrating Marriage which was taken out of a Manuscript of the Church of Rheims The Deacon Hillary in the Third Volume of the Works of St. Ambrose speaks of this benediction on the 12th verse of the 3. chap. of St. Paul Ep. to Timothy and on the 3. of the 5. chap. it is likely St. Tom. 2. p. 681. Par. 1614 Chrysostom had it in his thoughts when in his 48th Homily on Genesis he exhorts to send for the Priests to knit by Prayers and Blessings the Union and Concord of Marriage St. Isidore of Sivill in the 19th chap of the 2. Book of Divine Offices saith That when the Priest blesses Marriages he does it in imitation of God who blessed the Marriage of the first Man The Kings Charlemain and Lewis the De bonnaire in the Seventh Book of the Capitularies chap. 358 amongst several Conditions they prescribe necessary to a lawful Marriage they have not forgot the Blessing we treat of And in the Capitularies of Charles the bald is to be seen the Nuptial Blessings of his Daughter Judith with Edelwolf King of England and of Hormintrude with himself I would alleage other proofs of this Ancient Practice but not to tire the Reader I will conclude with the Testimony of Photius who in two of his last five Letters by way of Augmentation at the foot of the rest that is in the First and Fifth he several times makes mention of the publick benediction of Marriages by the Pastors XXIV It is convenient for the Order of the Church not to Celebrate Marriage on Sacrament Dayes and this Order shall not be broken but on weighty reasons which the Consistory shall advise upon Neither shall Marriages be solemniz'd on Days of Publick Fasting CONFORMITY The Cellebration of the Lords Supper which invites us to meditate of the Death of our Saviour and which requires of us Holy Dispositions to partake worthily of it the Cellebration I say of this Holy Sacrament not agreeing very well with what usually passes at Christian Weddings it is with great Reason the Authors of our Discipline has forbidden to solemnize any Marriage on the Days appointed for the Communion no more than on Days appointed for Cellebration of a Publick Fast because Fasting is an occasion of Affliction and Tears and Marriage on the contrary after the manner most People use it at this time is of prophane Rejoycing and very often of Debauchery and Excess The Antient Church prohibited although after several ways to Cellebrate Marriages in certain times as appears by the 52 Cannon of Laodicea and by a fragment of a Council of Lerrida in the Year 524. Tom. 3. Concil and the Second Council of Aix la Chapella pag. 817. in the year 836 defends in the 18th Cannon of the Third chap. to solemnize Marriages on Sundays for the Reverence of the Day Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 394. XXV Those who have been contracted and that have cohabitted together before being lawfully Marryed whether their fault came to be known before or after Marriage is solemnized they shall make publick confession of their fault or before the Consistory according as it shall think convenient And it hapning before Marriage such Solemnities shall be observed at the said Marriage as the
Tragedies CONFORMITY This Respect is due to the Holy Scriptures as not to make it serve for Subject nor Argument to these peeces of Theater which the Ancient Church has securely condemned forbidding her Children to be there present XIX Churches where there shall be Printers shall warn them not to print Books that shall concern Religion or Ecclesiastical Discipline without first having communicated them to the Consistory to prevent the mischeifs that have arisen thereby The Printers Stationers c. shall be warned not to sell any Books relateing to Idolatry that may be impious or scandalous or which may tend to the corrupting of good Manners CONFORMITY After what I have observed on the 2 3 and 16th Articles of this Chapter this doth not require any new interpretation XX. Although the Priests do wrongfully usurp Tythes by reason of their Administration nevertheless they ought to be paid in respect to the Kings command and to avoid sedition and giving offence CONFORMITY In that we pay Tythes to the Curate is an Effect of the obedience we owe to the Ordinance of our King and a mark of the care our Synods have had in accomodating in indifferent things with those from whom we have separated for meer Conscience sake and not for worldly considerations nor for private Interests XXI Believers shall be exhorted not to give any offence in working on fast days according to the Edict CONFORMITY It is also by a Principle of Obedience and submission that we observe Holy-days not to offend our Neighbours and to keep our selves up to the Edict under whose Rules we live XXII All Vsuries shall be very strictly prohibited because they are Exorbitants and many abuses is therein committed CONFORMITY The Ancient Cannons very strictly prohibited usury because it was cruel and many great crimes were therein committed Our Discipline follows a moderation in declaring that in matter of Lending one shall act according to the Kings Ordinance and moreover that the Rules of Charity be consulted XXIII All violence and unbecoming language against those of the Roman Church and even against Preists and Friers shall not onely be hinder'd but also wholly suppressed as much as possible may be CONFORMITY This Article is grounded on the Gospel which puts in the number of Murderers those which violate their Neighbours by injurious words and shews the disposition we have ever had to live peaceably with our Country-men not to instance in Cannons which forbid all manner of Outrages XXIV Swearers who through Custom or Anger take the Name of God in vain and others who prophane the Majesty of the Lord shall be grevously censur'd and after one or two admonitions if they desist not shall be suspended the Lords Table and outragious Blasphemers as also Damee's and the like shall by no meanes be tollerated in the Church but from the first offence shall be censured even to suspension from the Sacrament and if they persist they shall be publickly Excommunicated CONFORMITY The foundation of this Article is taken from the third Commandment of the first Table of the Law Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain After so strict a prohibition and so terrible a Commination our Discipline had Reason to establish punishments against the Infringers of this Commandment to avoid all blame and reproach L. 7. Ind. 2 Epist 6. Tom. 2. Spicil pag. 548. because as Gregory the first says Him that corrects not what should be taken away doth commit it Our King St. Lewis made an Ordinance in the year 1270 to bannish out of his Kingdom Blasphemies and Oaths whereby the Majesty of God is criminaly prophan'd XXV The Churches shall advertise Believers both Men and Women to use great Modesty especially in Apparel and shall give Order to abate the superfluity therein committed Nevertheless the said Churches shall make no Law thereabouts it being a thing appertaining to the Magistrate to do but shall give notice to all that the Kings Ordinances in those Cases shall be diligently observ'd CONFORMITY The remarks I have made on the 20th Article of the first Chapter will shew the Conformity of this with the Discipline of the Ancient Christians XXVI No body can be debarr'd from the Lords Table for wearing any kind of habit that shall be of Common use and Custom in this Kingdom but in this rank ought not to be comprehended those which leave the open marks of shame dissoluteness too much newness as Painting naked Breasts and the like the Consistories shall use all possible means to suppress such Dissolutions by Sensures and against obstinate Persons shall proceed to suspending them from the Lords Table CONFORMITY I say the same of this as of the former XXVII Dances shall be suppressed and those who make account to Dance or be present at Dancing after having been several times admonished shall be Excommunicated when they shall grow obstinate and Rebellious Consistories are strictly enjoyn'd to see this Article duely executed and to cause it to be publickly read in the name of the Synods and the Colloques exhorted to take Notice of Consistories which shall not take care to Sensure them CONFORMITY Can. 53. The Synod of Laodicea about the middle of the 4th Century made a Cannon against Dances contain'd in these Words Christians which go to Weddings must not Dance but let them Dine or Sup civilly as becomes Christians In the third Volume of the Councils a like Decree is attributed to the Council of Lerrida in the year 524. Though it s nothing but the same of that of Laodicea a little vary'd but just now mention'd Herrald Bishop of Tours in his Capitulary's of the year 858 Pag. 818. in the third Volume of the Councils of France forbids also Dances not only at Weddings Cap. 112 114. pag. 115. but also on other occasions the Frier Blastares has not in his Collection forgot the Cannon of Laodicea Chap. 7. of the Letter G. pag. 66. St. Eloy Bishop of Noyon in the 7th Century inveigh'd much against Dancing which he put in the number of Devilish Divertisments as is reported by St. Owen in the second Book of his life chap. 15. Tom. 5. spiril pag. 217. In the year 589 the third Council of Toledo had appointed in the 23d Tom. 4. conc pag. 507. Cannon to exterminate this prophane and Irreligious Custom from amongst the people who instead of attending diligently on Gods service on Holy-days spent the time in Dancing and singing filthy and impure Songs and the Fathers enjoyn the Bishops and Judges with care to clear Spain from this extravigance And about the beginning of the V. Century a Council of Africa had ordain'd in the 27th Cannon that the Emperors should be desir'd to prohibit Dances in the Streets on Days appointed for Celebrating the Memory of Martyrs Tom. 1. conc pag. 915. In the 6th Book of the Capitularies of our
Kings of the second Race Dances and Lascivious Songs were absolutely forbidden and it is therein declared that they which shall disobey this Ordinance shall suffer the punishment contain'd in the Cannon alledging for a Reason that they are the remainders of Paganism XXVIII Mommery's and Stage-plays shall not be allowed nor the Ceremony of King Drinks nor Carnavals nor Hocus Pocus slight of Hand and Poppet and Stage players and Christian Magistrates are exhorted not to tolerate them because these things only cause loss of time and entertains Idleness Curiosity and Expence Neither shall it be lawful for Believers to assist at Comedies Tragedies Farces Moralities and other plays acted in publick or in private seeing that in all Ages they have been prohibited amongst Christians as inclining to the corrupting of good Manners especially when the holy Scripture is therein mingled Nevertheless when in Colledges it shall be thought fit that Youth may represent some History it may be tolerated provided it ben't contain'd in the Holy Scripture which is not given to be dally'd with but to be truly Preached also it shall be done but very seldom and by advice of the Colloque which shall first see the composition CONFORMITY There may be apply'd to this Article as to what regards Mummery's the Liberties of Shrovetide and other the like Pastimes what the Fathers have said and done against Christians which allow'd themselves in Libertinism after the Manner of Pagans in the Callends of January that is to say the first day of that Month who used near hand the same Sports now practis'd at Carnaval but to draw to a Conclusion it suffices to refer the Reader to the first Cannon of a Synod at Auxer in the year 578 to a Homily of Maximus Bishop of Turin and a Writer of the V. Century Entituled A Homily on the Circumcision of our Lord or a reprehension of the Callends of January In this Sermon he explains the Follies and Debauches committed by Christians on that day and to what St. Owen writes of St. Eloy in the same Chapter cited on the foregoing Article whereby we find they abandon'd themselves to very great Extravagancy they put on Vizards and put themselves in the shape of sundry Beasts as of Sheep Stags Cows Bears and other Beasts to act with greater Liberty and Freedom until that at last these extravagancies being restrain'd by Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws Christians changed these Follies of the Callends of January to the time a little before Lent as if one were bound to commit Sin to have greater occafion of Repentance As for the rest of the Article which concerns Stage-plays and the Theater the Ancient Doctors of the Church incessantly cry against these worldly pastimes Tertullian and St. Cyprian have writ whole Treatises on purpose to divert Christians from them and has called them spectacles I actantius St. Basil St. Lib. 6. pag. 127. Par. 1669 Cyril of Jerusalem Isidore of Petlusta St. Crysostome St. Austin has highly condemned them and Salvian in his Treatise of Providence doth vehemently exagerate the evils that proceed from them and saith several things as may justly be apply'd to those amongst us as do frequent the Theater and Comedies The third Council of Carthage in the year 388 expresly forbids it in 11th Cannon And the 4th Tom. 1. Conc. pag. 710. which was assembled the year following Excomunicates in the 81th Cannon all those which on a solemn day abandon the assembly of the Church to be present at Stage-plays Ib. p. 730. therefore in another Council under Aurelius the Fathers of Africa resolved to beseech the Emperours to prohibit those worldly divertisments especially on solemn days set apart for the Exercise of Piety and Religion The 6th Oecumenical Council employes to this purpose the 51st Cannon at the end of the 7th Century Ib. c. 28. pag. 915. Thence it is that the Ancient Discipline excomunicates Stage-players Jesters Comedians and all those as mounted on the Theater to show these Divertisments to the people and worldings must not abuse what 's added at the end of the Establishment I examine saving the only scope of it was but sometimes to Exercise Scholars in Colledges XXIX All Playes prohibited by the Kings Edicts as Cards Dice and other Games of hazard and those of cevetousness immodesty scandal or notorious loss of time shall be suppressed and the parties reproved and admonished by the Consistory and Sensured as the Circumstances shall require Lotteries also are not to be allowed whither tolerated by the Magistrate or otherwise CONFORMITY The 6th Tom. 5. Conc. pag. 337. universal Council made this Decree contain'd in the 50th Cannon That no Christian whether of the Clergy or Laity do henceforth play at the game called Hazard and if any be found doing it if of the Clergy that he be deposed but if of the Laity that he be Excommunicated XXX To be present at Feasts and Collations of Weddings at Birth and Marriage of Children made by those of the Romish perswasion is in it self indifferent nevertheless Believers are advertised to use it to Edification and to consider if they are sufficiently able to resist the dissolutions and other evils which may there be committed and also to reprove them In which Feasts are not comprised those made by Priests at their first Mass to which it is not lawful to goe CONFORMITY The Council of Loadicea has proved in the 35th and 54th Cannons against the debauches which may happen at Feasts and has warned Christians not to participate thereof As for the Feasts made by Priests at their first Mass our Discipline had just reason to forbid those of its communion not to be there present because 't would be in some sort a silent approving of a thing which has occasioned one of the greatest causes of our separation from the Romish Church it was by a like principle the Synod of Laodicea prohibited Christians in the 37th 38th 39th Cannons not to communicate of any thing as they were wont to use in the Feasts of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans XXXI It shall be no means be permitted to be present at the Feasts or Weddings of those which to marry a Person of contrary Religion shall revolt from the profession of the Gospel As for those which have been a good while revolted or are wholly Papists it is at the discretion of Believers to do what they shall in Wisdom think convenient CONFORMITY What I have observed at the end of the former Article may be applyed to this XXXII Those which challenge or cause to be challenged to Duel or that being challenged accept it and even kill their Adversasaries although they might obtain their pardon or be otherwise claered shall be sensured to the being suspended from the Lords Supper which suspension shall be speedily published and if they desire to be received to the peace of the Church they must make publick confession of their Crime CONFORMITY Duels being expresly condemn'd by